During the techno-pandemic with social distancing keeping individuals apart, virtual meetings rapidly increased out of necessity. The estimates are that 300 million video conferences take place every day. Zoom Fatigue, a term coined in April 2020, describes how teleworkers, remote learning students, and others feel after a year of constant video calls.
The Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale survey, or ZEF allows individuals to check their level of Zoom Fatigue. Symptoms may include worry, exhaustion, and feelings of stress. The worst case is that it may result in complete burnout!
On February 23rd, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, Director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, reported his findings in the “Technology, Mind, and Behavior” journal.
“This piece outlines a theoretical explanation, as to why the current implementation of videoconferencing is so exhausting,” Bailenson claims that “nonverbal overload” is the primary cause of the syndrome.
In face-to-face interaction, nonverbal communication has a natural and easy flow. Body language is unconscious, not intentional. Typically most individuals are unaware of a myriad of non-verbal clues.
