If you’re feeling more exhausted than ever with an endless loop of Zoom calls, you’re not alone.
After extensive research, Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), explained exactly why.
According Stanford News, Bailenson determined four main causes for general videoconferencing fatigue. In his peer-reviewed academic paper for Technology, Mind and Behavior, he posits how and why constant video conferencing can be stressful. Fortunately, he also suggests ways to alleviate the exhaustion associated with it.
Bailenson found that one of the main reasons why video calls are so stressful is eye contact. There is an “unnatural” amount of eye contact with other people during these conferences.
“The social anxiety of public speaking is one of the biggest phobias that exist in our population,” explains Bailenson. “When you’re standing there and everyone is looking at you, it’s a stressful experience.”
He says that when we use Zoom for “many, many hours”, we enter a “state of hyperexcitation” due to the proximity of the faces of others. As our brains interpret this as an intense situation, it can affect the body. A recommendation to relieve this stress is to use a smaller zoom window and decrease the use of the entire screen.
Likewise, Bailenson believes that seeing yourself in video calls can be stressful, just like someone “constantly following you with a mirror”. Your solution? Platforms should eliminate this practice as a regular resource. Users can hide “self-viewing” after ensuring they are framed correctly before calls.
The director also says that video calls can reduce our mobility in frustrating ways. Being forced to sit in a place to communicate by video limits our ability to move in ways that are not “natural”. He recommends placing the external cameras further away from the screen or turning them off periodically to rest.
Finally, Bailenson believes that there is a higher cognitive load during video chats than during face-to-face interaction.
“You need to make sure that your head is framed in the center of the video,” he says. “If you want to show someone that you agree with them, you need to give an exaggerated wave or raise your thumbs. This adds cognitive load, as you are using mental calories to communicate. “
A quick fix, he says, is to take an “audio only” break every now and then. This is advice that can be applied to the overall Zoom experience.