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Zoom is where we work, go to school and party these days.

College students at a recent Zoom party.

On Sunday afternoon, Eleanor Dolan celebrated her 17th birthday in Minnesota with 20 of her closest friends. They listened to pop music and traded jokes. When the group broke out into "Happy Birthday to You," Eleanor pulled a slice of cookie cheesecake close in front of her and pretended to blow out the toothpick she had substituted for a candle on top.

Then, she blew lightly on her computer screen. Miles away, her friends extinguished candles atop baked goods in front of them. The party was taking place over Zoom, a video calling app. Eleanor's father briefly popped into her screen to take a photo.

Teenagers have jokingly referred to themselves as " Zoomers " online for years; now the name is literal. Overnight, Zoom has become a primary social platform for millions of people, a lot of them high school and college students, as those institutions move to online learning.

Zoom Video Communications is a videoconferencing company in San Jose, Calif., that has been thrust into the spotlight over the past week. On Monday morning, its iOS app became the top free download in Apple's App Store.

On Sunday, nearly 600,000 people downloaded the app, its biggest day ever, according to Apptopia, which tracks mobile apps. While the stock market crashes, Zoom shares have soared this year, valuing the company at $29 billion - more than airlines like Delta, American Airlines or United Airlines.

Zoom has been preparing for this moment since the new coronavirus began spreading in China in January. Even then it was easy to see that Zoom's primary customer base - videoconferencing desk workers - would become more reliant on its services while quarantined at home. So the company began closely monitoring its capacity and started hosting free training sessions. In China, Zoom dropped its 40-minute limit for free calls.

But no amount of planning could have anticipated the company's emergence as a cultural phenomenon used to host parties, concerts, church services and art shows. Zoom could not have prepared to become a meme.

A Facebook group for young people trapped at home called Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens, founded less than a week ago, has already grown to more than 150,000 members.

College students across the country are going on Zoom blind dates. Parents of sixth-graders at Rosenbaum Yeshiva Of North Jersey organized a Zoom "recess" for their children. Ethel's Club, a wellness platform, is conducting Zoom tarot card readings, breath work and cannabis hangouts.

It is a high-stakes moment for Zoom, which was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, a former Cisco Systems executive. Its sudden cultural cachet also brings new concerns over privacy, security, content moderation, safety for young people and sensitivity to the seriousness of the pandemic. There's also the tiny matter of keeping the service up and running.

"This is a very critical moment," Mr. Yuan, Zoom's chief executive, said on an analyst call earlier this month. "Overnight almost everybody read and understood they needed a tool like this."

"We finally figured out what Z stands for in Gen Z," a college student in the Zoom meme group joked.

Many students say that adjusting to school closings and public health guidelines to isolate has been incredibly hard. They have used Zoom to attempt to replicate some sense of normalcy. Parties, sorority socials and beer pong nights have found a new home on Zoom.

Some students developed Zoom-themed drinking games for Zoom parties, adjusting the popular game "never have I ever" to "never have I ever left quarantine."

"If someone can figure out how to invent a party atmosphere in this socially distant format, then I think it will be a mainstay," said Lucas Moiseyev, a senior at Carnegie Mellon. "Twitch is to YouTube as Zoom can be to TikTok."

Mr. Moiseyev thinks the platform has potential to become part of Gen Z's daily life, post-coronavirus, if the platform can incorporate more social features.

Students say they want things like better direct messaging, more funny face filters and the kind of stickers, live video effects and editing tools they get on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

They also want to be able to discover fellow Zoomer hangouts. (The only way to find a Zoom party right now is through a link to it from elsewhere.)

For the time being, young people are being creative with what they have. Teenagers have created TikToks of Zoom hacks, like how to make it appear as if you're in class when you're not.

Uploading custom backgrounds has become a way for multiple users to screen share funny memes or videos. At a Zoom party on Saturday, one college student figured out how to adapt a meme and loop a video of Ricardo Milos, a male stripper, behind him.

As new Zoom users flock to the platform, social norms are still evolving. Michael Crisp, a student at Kansas State University, tweeted: "i'm unfamiliar with zoom etiquette. do we gotta ask to leave to go to the bathroom or what. can i have food? can my cat ride shotgun? do i absolutely need pants? this is my HOME bro."

Any Zoom event with too many callers can also become chaotic. - Some people leave their microphones on, chat nonstop in the sidebar, flip their backgrounds around.

On Saturday, a midnight Zoom party for young climate activists hosted by Ayisha Siddiqa, 21, a founder of Polluters Out, attracted more than 80 attendees, mostly teenagers. After about 30 minutes, the party got so big and boisterous that everyone broke out into smaller rooms.

But why Zoom? Why not Skype, which has been around since 2003? Or Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger or Apple's FaceTime? They've all had a boost recently.

Marco Polo, a video chat app, saw sign-ups increase nearly threefold last week over the previous week, the company said.

Zoom is baked into many colleges and schools already that use it. The product's layout makes it easy to talk with multiple people at once. And Zoom has some features that mirror social media apps. A button called Touch Up My Appearance casts a soft focus over the video display, smoothing out the skin tone of the presenter like an Instagram filter. Custom backdrops can hide messy bedrooms.

Zoom has a "hotter brand" association,said Rishi Jaluria, a senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson. "Younger people don't want to use the older technology."

Joshua Rush, 18, a high school senior in Los Angeles, said: "Out of nowhere, I feel like Zoom has clout."

People also pick Zoom because it works. Paul Condra, a technology analyst at PitchBook, said Zoom's reliability and simplicity has made it the "standard" in videoconferencing software.

"This is a crisis tailor-made for Zoom," Mr. Condra said.

As with all products, users should be careful embracing Zoom without being aware of some of the privacy issues. Jules Polonetsky, the chief executive of the Future of Privacy Forum, warned that Zoom's terms of service includes some stipulations that could overreach into invading user privacy.

"The standard Zoom privacy policy allows data to be shared for targeted advertising," Mr. Polonetsky wrote in an email interview. And some of the company's standard terms are not consistent with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, "in addition to many of the 130+ state student privacy laws passed since 2014," he added.

For workers using the software during business hours, Zoom also includes a feature that can track some aspects of whether a participant is multitasking on a computer and report it back to the host of the call.

"Most users will have no idea," Mr. Polonetsky said. "Zoom should make it very obvious when this setting is enabled or some people are going to be extremely embarrassed."

A Zoom spokeswoman said this feature is designed for employers to ensure workers complete training. It is switched off by default.

There is also concern that as Zoom grows in popularity, the company will run into some of the content moderation issues familiar to companies like Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, where people have posted suicides, traded in child exploitation material and have used the platforms to live-stream mass shootings.

Last year a court case in Pennsylvania showed that Zoom was used to distribute child pornography.

"With much broader adoption, abuse and misuse will follow, so Zoom should be getting ready to handle reports and complaints," Mr. Polonetsky said. But because Zoom is set up as a conference call service, not a publication platform like Facebook, it may face fewer issues than the traditional social networks.

A Zoom spokeswoman said, "Zoom is designed to be used as a business service, and our user policies explicitly prohibit any illegal or abusive activity or content on the platform, including any activities that threaten, exploit or otherwise harm children."

On Monday morning, teachers at thousands of schools across the United States dialed into Zoom for the first time and began delivering virtual lessons. Zoom executives, including Mr. Yuan, did triage - on Zoom, of course - from their homes in Silicon Valley.

The schools were taking advantage of Zoom's decision, announced last week, to make its services free for kindergarten through high schools in the United States, Italy and Japan.

Zoom operates a "freemium" business model: Groups of up to 100 people can use it for 40 minutes at a time at no charge, but must pay $14.99 per month or more for extra features, like bigger groups and administrative controls.

It's not clear whether the influx of families, teenagers and tarot card readers will translate to an influx in revenue for Zoom. Mr. Jaluria, the D.A. Davidson analyst, said that over time, the company "will get a benefit from this massive brand building that's happening," especially when the college students using it today enter, or hope to enter, the work force in a few years.

Zoom has carefully avoided coming off like a tone-deaf Silicon Valley company taking advantage of a crisis. (But it was busy. Citing the work of onboarding schools to the product, leadership was unavailable to talk to The New York Times.)

The epidemic has broadened Mr. Yuan's view of what it means to be a video communications provider, he wrote in a blog post last month. "I'm compelled to help anyone who needs it," he said.

On Saturday night, Claire Tran, 22, hosted her first Zoom party after being holed up in her Washington, D.C., apartment for nearly a week. Twenty-one of her friends popped in throughout the four-hour event.

"Before we started the call I was like, this is cool, maybe we'll do this once a month," she said. "After it ended, I was like, I need this every weekend or I'll go crazy."

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Zoom is where we work, go to school and party these days. On Sunday afternoon, Eleanor Dolan celebrated her 17th birthday in Minnesota with 20 of her closest friends. They listened to pop music and traded jokes.

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Answers to your most common questions about the best practices for stemming the tide of the coronavirus pandemic.

Credit... David Ramos/Getty Images

On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended against any gatherings of 50 or more people over the next eight weeks, in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Many public schools, libraries, universities, places of worship, and sporting and cultural institutions have also shut down for at least the next few weeks. These measures are an attempt to enforce distance between people, a proven way to slow pandemics.

Experts have also been urging people to practice voluntary "social distancing." The term has been trending on Twitter, with even President Trump endorsing it on Saturday.

Still, people all over the United States have been out in large numbers at restaurants, bars and even sporting events, suggesting more than a little confusion around what social distancing is and who should be practicing it.

This is deeply worrying, experts said, because even those who become only mildly ill - and maybe even those who never even know they are infected - can propel the exponential movement of the virus through the population.

They emphasized that it's important for everyone to practice social distancing, not just those considered to be at high risk or who are seriously ill.

"These are not normal times, this is not a drill," said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. "We have never been through anything like this before."

What exactly is social distancing? We asked experts for practical guidance.

Put simply, the idea is to maintain a distance between you and other people - in this case, at least six feet.

That also means minimizing contact with people. Avoid public transportation whenever possible, limit nonessential travel, work from home and skip social gatherings - and definitely do not go to crowded bars and sporting arenas.

"Every single reduction in the number of contacts you have per day with relatives, with friends, co-workers, in school will have a significant impact on the ability of the virus to spread in the population," said Dr. Gerardo Chowell, chair of population health sciences at Georgia State University.

This strategy saved thousands of lives both during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and, more recently, in Mexico City during the 2009 flu pandemic.

Please don't. There is no question that older people and those with underlying health conditions are most vulnerable to the virus, but young people are by no means immune.

And there is a greater public health imperative. Even people who show only mild symptoms may pass the virus to many, many others - particularly in the early course of the infection, before they even realize they are sick. So you might keep the chain of infection going right to your own older or high-risk relatives. You may also contribute to the number of people infected, causing the pandemic to grow rapidly and overwhelm the health care system.

If you ignore the guidance on social distancing, you will essentially put yourself and everyone else at much higher risk.

Experts acknowledged that social distancing is tough, especially for young people who are used to gathering in groups. But even cutting down the number of gatherings, and the number of people in any group, will help.

Absolutely. The experts were unanimous in their answer to this question.

It's O.K. to go outdoors for fresh air and exercise - to walk your dog, go for a hike or ride your bicycle, for example. The point is not to remain indoors, but to avoid being in close contact with people.

You may also need to leave the house for medicines or other essential resources. But there are things you can do to keep yourself and others safe during and after these excursions.

When you do leave your home, wipe down any surfaces you come into contact with, disinfect your hands with an alcohol-based sanitizer and avoid touching your face. Above all, frequently wash your hands - especially whenever you come in from outside, before you eat or before you're in contact with the very old or very young.

Yes. But buy as much as you can at a time in order to minimize the number of trips, and pick a time when the store is least likely to be crowded.

When you do go, be aware that any surface inside the store may be contaminated. Use a disinfecting wipe to clean the handle of the grocery cart, for example. Experts did not recommend wearing gloves, but if you do use them, make sure you don't touch your face until you have removed the gloves.

Dr. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, recommends stowing your cellphone in an inaccessible place so that you don't absent-mindedly reach for it while shopping. "That could be a transmission opportunity," she said.

If it's a long shopping trip, you may want to bring hand sanitizer with you and disinfect your hands in between. And when you get home, Dr. Rivers said, wash your hands right away.

Those at high risk may want to avoid even these outings if they can help it, especially if they live in densely populated areas.

Dr. Marrazzo said her mother is an "incredibly healthy" 93-year-old who usually drives herself to the store, but she said she has asked her mother not to go out during this time, because "the risks are too great given the age-related mortality we're seeing."

Some countries have closed down restaurants and bars for the next few weeks, but there is no specific nationwide guidance yet on this in the U.S. beyond the C.D.C.'s recommendation against gatherings of more than 50 people.

Before New York City announced it would be shutting down restaurants and bars, they were supposed to be operating at half capacity to maintain social distancing and soften the economic impact. But in small restaurants, that may still mean you're too close to other diners. It's also not possible to maintain true social distance from the people preparing or serving the food.

In general, avoid going out to restaurants, Dr. Marrazzo said, but, "If you're going to go, go to some place that you trust." Choose spacious restaurants and ones where the staff members likely practice good hygiene. Better yet, opt for takeout. If you're concerned for the restaurant's financial future, ask about purchasing gift certificates you can redeem later.

That depends on who is in your family and how healthy they are.

"Certainly, sick family should not visit," said Dr. Marrazzo. "If you have vulnerable people in your family, or who are very old, then limit in-person contact."

But if everyone in the family is young and healthy, then some careful interaction in small groups is probably OK. "The smaller the gathering, the healthier the people are to start with, the lower the risk of the situation is going to be," she said.

At the same time, you don't want family members to feel isolated or not have the support of loved ones, so check in with them by phone or plan activities to do with them on video.

That depends. If your children have any illness, even if it's not related to the coronavirus, keep them at home.

If they seem healthy and desperately need to burn energy, outdoor activities such as bike rides are generally OK. But "people, especially in higher-risk areas, may want to think twice about trips to high-traffic public areas like the playground," said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School.

Kids also tend to touch their mouths, noses and faces constantly, so parks or playgrounds with few kids and few contaminated surfaces are ideal. Take hand sanitizer with you and clean any surfaces with disinfecting wipes before they play.

Serious illness from this virus in kids is rare, so the kids themselves might be safe. "That doesn't mean they can't come home and give it to Grandma," said Dr. Marazzo.

So kids should wash their hands often, especially before they come into contact with older or high-risk family members.

It's a scary and uncertain time. Staying in touch with family and friends is more important than ever, because we are biologically hard-wired to seek each other out when we are stressed, said Dr. Jonathan Kanter, director for the Center for Science of Social connection at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Dr. Kanter said he was particularly worried about the long-term impact of social isolation on both the sick and the healthy. The absence of physical touch can have a profound impact on our stress levels, he said, and make us feel under threat.

He said even imagining a warm embrace from a loved one can calm the body's fight-or-flight response.

In the meantime, we are lucky enough to have technologies at hand that can maintain social connections. "It's important to note that social distancing does not mean social isolation," Dr. Chaudhary said.

She suggested people stay connected via social media, chat and video. Be creative: Schedule dinners with friends over FaceTime, participate in online game nights, plan to watch television shows at the same time, enroll in remote learning classes. It's especially important to reach out to those who are sick or to high-risk people who are self-isolating. "A phone call with a voice is better than text, and a video chat is better than a telephone call," Dr. Kanter said.

That is a big unknown, experts said. A lot will depend on how well the social distancing measures in place work and how much we can slow the pandemic down. But prepare to hunker down for at least a month, and possibly much longer.

In Seattle, the recommendations on social distancing have continued to escalate with the number of infections and deaths, and as the health system has become increasingly strained.

"For now, it's probably indefinite," Dr. Marrazzo said. "We're in uncharted territory."

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Answers to your most common questions about the best practices for stemming the tide of the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended against any gatherings of 50 or more people over the next eight weeks, in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

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Teen Tribune-News Curated for Grades 9-12

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Teen Tribune-News Curated for Grades 9-12

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween…

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The Fever written & read by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Neil Gaiman Reads The Graveyard Book & Coraline

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