Zoom Fatigue is Real
My goal here is not to vilify videoconferencing platforms which I am delighted to use to work with clients all over the world. However, my research into the effects of Zoom confirmed what my clients are experiencing and revealed that hundreds of hours of video meetings over an extended period of time takes its toll on our bodies, emotions, and brains. It is not just the effects of COVID and isolation causing our duress.
The problem with videoconferencing is real. And until video calls update their interfaces, there are small adjustments to the settings you can use. For example, if you find yourself in long meetings, even minimizing the size of faces or having audio-only breaks can help immensely. You will find more research findings and tips from my esteemed clients below.
Good Vibes from My Zoom Room
I effectively use Zoom regularly in my private practice and am delighted to connect online not only for individual Integrative Psychotherapy sessions, but also for Crystal Bowl Sound Healings with individuals, couples, and groups. When using a good computer, the Zoom platform has proven surprisingly effective over these past few years in transmitting healing sound vibrations.
Sound Healing helps to reduce stress and Zoom Fatigue by shifting us to the Parasympathetic Nervous System away from the "Flight, Fight, Freeze" of the Sympathetic Nervous System. The healing sound vibrations of my high-quality crystal bowls lower the heart and respiratory rate and slow down brain waves for what I like to call "blue sky mind” delivering a dose of equanimity, ease, and mental spaciousness. Sound Healing is an energetic massage for all aspects of our being and when combined with guided meditation my clients report a refreshing, restorative sense of relaxation and welcomed relief. That’s good news.In a future blog I will share other good practices I offer clients using yoga stretches, meditation, hand mudras, Laughter Yoga, and other lifestyle choices to reduce Zoom Fatigue.
Zoom-Fatigued Clients are Saying
While I have gratefully adapted to using Zoom as a professional tool, unlike my clients, all of whom are leaders in organizational settings, I am able to schedule my Zoom Room offerings with healthy meditation and yoga/stretch breaks in between and am not subjected to back-to-back meetings all day long. My hard-working clients report varying degrees of symptoms; socially, mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted with throbbing headaches, aching eyeballs, stiff necks, and sleep-deprivation.
Many say they feel irritable and exhausted after a day of back-to-back zoom meetings and are reluctant to pursue social outings with friends now that things are opening up after COVID lockdown in favor of “time out” alone. But even their private home space feels like it has been invaded by folks from the office! Our home space has become our workplace.
Staring at themselves on screen all day brings up acute self-criticism affecting self-esteem. Some of my clients turn off the video or opt for old-school phone counseling sessions to get a break from this self-scrutiny.
Business demands and performance objectives certainly have not diminished for staff working online causing cognitive and work overload. Several of my clients have expressed the need to work even more hours a day than ever "to meet performance goals when so much of the day is spent in Zoom meetings.”
Leaders’ Suggestions for Zoom Meetings: Here are a few tips from my clients, all leaders in organizational settings:
Shorten your Zoom meetings. There is no rule that meetings must be an hour.
Schedule “Intermissions” during long meetings to allow for participants to take a 5-minute break. Model healthy behavior by encouraging your team to get some water, stand up, and move around.
Invite your colleagues and clients to turn off the video for some of your meetings and use audio. Invite them to stretch and stand while participating.
Schedule fewer Zoom Meetings!
Arrange for short 1:1 telephone call check-ins for individual contact with clients and co-workers.
Email colleagues with requests for specific written responses addressing your agenda which you can summarize and share at more effective Zoom Team Meetings.
Employ Conference Calls with a few team members or clients when the whole gang need not be included.
Current Research
Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), examined how video conferencing platforms can impact us psychologically.
The new study, published Feb. 23, 2021 in the journal of Technology, Mind, and Behavior, is the first peer-reviewed article that studies “Zoom Fatigue” from a psychological perspective. Moreover, he provides suggestions for consumers and organizations on how to leverage the current features on videoconferences to decrease fatigue.
Hopefully, their evidence-based research and surveys will contribute to uncovering the roots of this problem and help people adapt their videoconference practices. This research could also inform videoconference platform designers to challenge and rethink some of the paradigm videoconferences have been built on.
Four Technical Zoom Tips to Minimize the Impact
1. Minimize the size of faces
Problem: Too much Eye Gaze at a Close Distance. On Zoom calls, everyone is looking at everyone’s face all the time — this is not normal in most meetings around a table. Faces appear larger, and closer than in real life on a screen.Previous studies found anything closer than 60 cm apart is classified as “intimate,” the type of interpersonal distance patterns reserved for families and loved ones. It means one-on-one meetings conducted over Zoom, coworkers, and friends are operating in the interpersonal distance reserved for loved ones.
That makes them feel as if the person you are talking to is standing closer and staying in your personal, intimate space. On top of this fact, the Zoom call is usually taking place in your own home which adds to the imposed feeling of intimacy.
Solution: Professor Bailenson recommends taking Zoom out of the full-screen option, reducing the Zoom window’s size to minimize the face size. Another option is to use an external keyboard for a laptop to increase your space between your body and people’s grid on the screen
2. Hide your self-view
Problem: An all-day mirror. If you walked around looking at yourself in a mirror, Bailensen suggests, you would drive yourself crazy. You are more critical of yourself when you look in a mirror. The sight of yourself on the screen all day brings up highly negative emotions.
Solution: Bailenson recommends hiding the “self-view” button, which you can access by right-clicking your photo once you see your face is framed correctly in the video call
3. Turn off your video periodically
Problem: Cognitive overload. The camera on your computer has a fixed field of view, meaning you are stuck in one smaller spot. This is not natural, and focusing on a limited space is a drain on your energy. It’s been found when people move around; they perform better cognitively.
Solution: Bailenson recommends a good ground rule to set for groups to give themselves a brief nonverbal rest: Turn the video off periodically during meetings. If you can, put an external camera farther away from the screen, you can then pace and draw in virtual meetings just like in real ones.
4. Turn your body away from the screen and move around on audio-only breaks
Problem: Reduced mobility. We work a lot harder at understanding non-verbal cues when talking on video calls. We are missing natural hand gestures and emotions, which help with communication. When a person looks off-screen — are they looking at their child coming into the room, or are they signaling to the person next to them on the call? Audio reduces this natural human response to visual cues.
Solution: Give yourself an “audio-only” break, especially in long stretches of meeting. “This is not simply you turning off your camera to take a break from having to be nonverbally active, but also turning your body away from the screen,” Bailenson said, “so that for a few minutes, you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless.”