Zoom Fatigue
Over a year ago now (!), we were all suddenly plunged into a world even more virtual than it had been before. From what I’ve seen (and experienced) this started off an interesting novelty; we zoomed everyone. All the time. Video calls seemed like such an easy way to feel less isolated and add a sense of normal social life back into our now very socially distanced lives. We did all of our work meetings via zoom, we had endless zoom quizzes with every different friend group and pockets of family we could send the zoom link to.
And then we started to notice that we actually don’t feel great after these calls. And actually, we might need to limit the number of work meetings via zoom we have in a day. And the number of video calls in general. And actually we don’t really want another big friend-group zoom quiz for a very long time, even though we miss our friends desperately. Professor Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University has been carrying out research into the psychological consequences of spending hours a day on video conferencing software. So, there is now real evidence that these video conferencing platforms really are exhausting and zoom fatigue is real. Luckily, there seems to be a few easy ways to mitigate the exhaustion.
From Bailenson’s study, there are four main reasons why we feel so exhausted as a result of zoom life.
The first reason is eye contact. During zoom calls and meetings there is a high level of eye contact being made. During a meeting, we’d normally focus on the person who is speaking. However in a zoom meeting, we tend to observe everyone that’s in that meeting - and everyone else is doing the same. That means that even if we aren’t the one speaking, we are looking at everyone else’s face staring at us. So, what happens in our brain and body is the same as what happens when we do have to speak in front of a group of people, because our brain doesn’t know the difference. The increase in stress and anxiety leaves us feeling drained.
Bailenson also found that the close-up of peoples’ faces is interpreted by our brain as an intense situation; “you’re seeing their face at a size which simulates a personal space that you normally experience when you’re with somebody intimately.”
To get around this, Bailenson suggests using an external keyboard, so that we can get some distance between ourselves and the monitor, as well as reducing the actual size of the Zoom or video call window on the screen.
Secondly, the viewer is constantly also looking at themselves. This is making people more self-conscious and also more critical. Bailenson says “it’s taxing on us… there’s lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror”. In normal, day-to-day life we are not followed around by a mirror and we do not have to constantly catch ourselves listening to feedback, giving feedback, we can’t constantly notice our hair slightly out of place or how we might look more pale than we always thought. Looking at ourselves that frequently is unusual and seemingly unhealthy, too.This element of ‘zoom fatigue’ can be reduced by using the ‘hide self-view’ function (found by right clicking on your photo).
Thirdly, Bailenson’s study highlighted the dramatic reduction in mobility. In-person meetings and phone calls allow movement. In a normal work meeting we don’t have to concentrate on staying completely still. We can fidget, look around, fiddle with our pens, even get up and walk around. In videoconferences, we have stay in the same spot because of the cameras set field of view. This limitation on our movement is not natural. Bailenson suggests that we set our camera up further away from us if possible, to allow us movement while still being visible in our meeting. He also argues that people should be allowed to turn our video off now and then to give ourselves a rest.
Finally, Bailenson found that the cognitive load is significantly higher during video calls and meetings. In normal, face-to-face interaction, we all naturally interpret gestures and cues without spending any energy on this really. In a video call, we work harder to send and receive signals. Bailenson says “you’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate.”
To limit this, we can give ourselves “audio only” breaks, turning off our cameras and actually facing ourselves away from the screen. Bailenson says that this way “for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless.”
References:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3786329
https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/
