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. 

However, on Zoom, nonverbal behavior is elevated to the conscious level. Users are working much harder to send and receive communications and the gestures and body language that goes with it.

There are at least 4 stressors that contribute to Zoom Fatigue.

1) Too much close-up eye contact creates intimacy issues.

In an in-person conference room, typically focus is on one person at a time. Naturally eye contact is on whomever is presenting ideas, leading the meeting, or talking.

Unfortunatley, Zoomers are in a heightened optic environment. Staring at a screen causes users to constantly stare at all participants. According to Bailenson, this “effectively transforms listeners into speakers and smothers everyone with eye gaze.”

“On Zoom, behavior ordinarily reserved for close relationships, such as long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up...has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, co-workers, and even strangers,” he writes. 

2) Constantly Being On-Screen in Real-Time Can Cause Exhaustion

The study concluded that “the tendency to self-focus" might cause people to experience depression. Staring at ourselves, and being constantly looked at by others, contributes to 'Zoom Fatigue.'

3) The Ability to Zoom On-demand Reduces Mobility and at Times Represents an Invasion of Privacy

Users no longer need to leave home for work or socialization. Naturally, this limits typical mobility. With Zoom and other video call apps, the world is getting larger and smaller at the same time.  Each Zoom call is an invitation into a user's personal space and home, allowing individuals to 'visit' across the nation or internationally.

4) Cognitive Load is Way Too High with Videoconferencing

Users tend to overcompensate on camera. For example “nodding in an exaggerated way for a few extra seconds,” and “looking directly into the camera (as opposed to the faces on the screen) to try and make direct eye contact when speaking.”  Reports also state users talk louder and longer while Zooming than in a typical one to one setting.

A 2019 study referenced in the “Technology, Mind, and Behavior” journal found that video participants tend to speak at 15% higher volume than normal phone-talkers.  

Recommendations

Bailenson recommends minimizing the size of faces on screens and increasing distance between the monitor and a user's face. This reduces the impact of the faces on the screen, while also creating a more "conference" style situation.

Consider getting out of the full-screen option and reducing the Zoom window size relative to the monitor. Additionally, get rid of the “Brady Bunch” grid format.

Bailenson also recommends that video platforms change the default practice of actually streaming video unless necessary. Currently the “hide self-view” button is may be used to attend by audio only. 

Bailenson suggests that users consider the background of the room that the camera is streaming. Think about camera positioning too. For example, setting the camera to show just a user's shoulders and up provide the ability to doodle or write during online meetings. And it’s a good idea to turn off the video from time-to-time. It's easier to avoid non-verbal overload in a “talk only” mode.

“This is not simply you turning off the camera to take a break from having to be nonverbally active, but also turning your body away from the screen,” Bailenson emphasizes, “so that for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless.”

Even before the skyrocketing use caused by the pandemic, Bailenson says that  “videoconferencing is here to stay.” But it’s a good idea to change it up more often with email, in-person conferences, or voice calls. “Perhaps a driver of Zoom fatigue is simply that we are taking more meetings than we would be doing face-to-face,” he adds.