[kyranjamie]

I don't agree with the suggestion of using a Zoom background. "Oh cool, you're sat behind the Golden Gate bridge?", or a fish tank, some clouds...

There are valid uses for backgrounds, I'm sure, but generally speaking it's better to show your real environment. Be it a view of your kitchen, or a wall with ugly wallpaper, I don't care. Superimposing yourself on a faux background enters uncanny valley territory.

[derwiki]

What about a blurred background?

[ghaff]

IMO they're better than the fake backdrops but still often distractingly fake looking. If your background is really that bad, maybe better than nothing but probably better to try to do something about it, whether a screen or something else.

To be honest, a few things like backlighting windows (and bad lighting generally) are far worse than a bit of clutter.