It turns out that there is a scientific reason why you hate Zoom
We have been in the pandemic for a year, almost a year of family celebrations canceled or seriously altered and we are wearing masks until further notice. While the vaccine is being launched across the country, we are still distancing socially, so business is definitely not going as usual. Which means that Zoom meetings are here to stay. It was a year asking other participants to silence or reactivate their sound. A year learning more about our colleagues’ decorating preferences than we ever thought possible. And we are tired of it. And a new study says that there is, in fact, a good scientific reason (four, actually) why you’re absolutely out of Zoom.
everything goes well until someone asks you to activate the zoom sound: pic.twitter.com/NxE7KtRpGO
– DIVE Studios (@thedivestudios) February 27, 2021
Jeremy Bailenson of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab recently published a study on the mental impact of spending hours a day on Zoom and other popular video chat platforms.
Result: four problems that Bailenson says are due to a year of video calls. Or what we commonly call “zoom fatigue”.
Four Reasons Why You Hate Zoom
Problem: extreme amounts of close eye contact are intense.
The amount of eye contact we make in video chats, as well as the size of the faces on the monitors, is abnormal. In a typical conference, people will look around the room. But in Zoom’s calls, everyone is looking at everyone – all the time. Listeners become speakers because people are looking at you even when you don’t speak.
Solution: Bailenson recommends changing the zoom of the full screen option and decreasing the size of the zoom window. He also suggests using an external keyboard to allow for an increase in the bubble of personal space between you and the grid.
Problem: prolonged episodes of watching yourself on video are tiring.
Most video platforms display a square of their appearance on the camera during a discussion. But that is not natural, said Bailenson. “In the real world, if someone was following you with a mirror constantly – so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, receiving feedback – you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would be crazy. Nobody would ever think about that, ”he added.
The disconnect is shocking and unforgiving – and it can extend to our voices, as one Twitter user observed.
My video in My voice on
approximation approximation pic.twitter.com/VvhZfRC55L– lune ❦ (@lunebat) February 27, 2021
Solution: Bailenson proposes that video conferencing platforms modify the standard video streaming practice for presenters and viewers, when it only needs to be sent to viewers. Presenters can use the “hide auto preview” button, which you can do by right clicking on your own photo.
Problem: Video chats significantly reduce our ability to move.
Personal and telephone chats allow people to move around. But with Zoom, most people need to stay in the same place or the camera’s focus will suffer. This means that your movement is limited in ways that don’t seem natural.
Solution: Bailenson recommends that people consider the room in which they are chatting. Staying away from the screen will allow you to walk and scribble in virtual conversations, just as we do in face-to-face meetings. In addition, you can turn off the video from time to time – this will give you a short non-verbal rest.
Problem: The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.
Bailenson notes that in typical face-to-face interaction, non-verbal communication is natural. But in video chats, we work harder to transmit and receive signals. The study states that gestures can mean different things in a video context. A sideways glance at someone during a personal meeting means something very different than an individual on a chat grid looking off the screen at his dog who started to scratch the door.
We can all relate – it is exhausting to constantly examine and think about nonverbal communication.
I think I already drank too much #enlargement call this week. pic.twitter.com/X2FTXSkBMa
– Kristin Kisska, Author (@KKMHOO) February 27, 2021
Solution: during long periods of meetings, be sure to take an “audio only” break. “It’s not just about turning off your camera to take a break from not having to be non-verbally active, but also moving your body away from the screen,” said Bailenson, “so that for a few minutes you won’t be overwhelmed by gestures that are noticeably realistic, but socially meaningless ”.
Bailenson is continuing his research on video exhaustion. If you are interested in measuring your own Zoom fatigue, you can take the survey here and participate in the research project.
What do you say? Do you feel Zoom fatigue?