Exhausting video chats. Four simple tips can help combat the feeling of "zoom fatigue".
Do you often feel exhausted after a video conference? Does constant video chatting exhaust you so much that you have no energy left to do other things? You are not alone. Jeremy Bailenson, Founding Director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), has identified four consequences of prolonged video chatting that contribute to the feeling of "zoom fatigue" and gives tips on how we can avoid it.
Corona has changed our communication habits in a very short space of time: Instead of having face-to-face conversations with our fellow human beings, most of us have been sitting in front of a screen for months, looking into the faces of our colleagues, relatives or friends via video transmission. This is challenging for our brains, as this type of communication is highly intense and sometimes sends the wrong messages.
Many pairs of eyes focused on you, constant eye contact or the face of your boss in full screen on your monitor: video meetings increase the number of times we look at each other and therefore increase stress, says communication scientist Bailenson. The sheer size of the faces on the screens is also unnatural. If a person's face were so close to ours in real life, our brain would interpret the situation as leading to either body contact (mating) or conflict. "If you use Zoom for many hours, you are in a hyper-excited state," summarizes Bailenson. He recommends removing the video conference from the full-screen option and reducing the size of the video window in relation to the monitor. Using an external keyboard can also provide more distance and thus cognitive relief.
Most video platforms show how you look in front of the camera during a chat. This is a completely unnatural and sometimes unpleasant experience for us, states the Stanford researcher. Those who are constantly confronted with their own reflection, for example, are much more self-critical. As a solution, Bailenson recommends that platforms change their standard practice of sending the video both to themselves and to others. In the meantime, users should use the "Hide self-view" button, which can be accessed in some programs by right-clicking on their own image as soon as they see that their face is properly framed in the video. If this function is not available, stick a Post-it on your own video image, for example.
Video chats drastically restrict our usual mobility. While we can walk around and move around during face-to-face meetings and audio calls, we are generally stuck in the same place during a video conference. In the long term, this not only damages our body - keyword: neck and back tension - but also our mental fitness. "More and more research is showing that people who exercise perform better cognitively," says Bailenson.
Bailenson recommends thinking more about the room in which the video conference takes place: Where is the camera positioned? An external keyboard can help to create distance or flexibility and to pace or scribble on a flipchart in virtual meetings just as we do in real meetings. In addition, everyone should follow the basic rule of regularly switching off the video during the meeting to give themselves a short non-verbal break .
The communication scientist notes that in face-to-face interactions, non-verbal communication in the form of gestures is also quite natural and can be easily interpreted. In video chats, on the other hand, we have to work harder to send and receive signals. For example, if you want to show that you agree, you have to nod or give an exaggerated thumbs-up. According to Bailenson, this increases the cognitive load and thus the mental calorie consumption.
During longer meetings, take an "audio only" break by switching off the camera and deliberately turning your body away from the screen. In any case, it is advisable to take a short break after 45 minutes of video chat.
Source: https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/
If you are interested in measuring your zoom fatigue, you can take part in the survey here and take part in the research project:
https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3xGmOOvQ5YZlaZM