Why video conferencing is so tiring for participants, and what to do about it

In connection with the isolation and transition to remote work, many users are faced with a new problem for themselves. Today, people are forced to constantly participate in video conferences with colleagues, friends and relatives. But no matter what service is used for this — Google Meet, Zoom, FaceTime or old-fashioned Skype — sooner or later the user begins to notice an unpleasant feature. Video conferencing is tedious as hell.

Previously, when people did not encounter this problem so often and massively, few people paid attention to it. Now that quarantine has driven millions of people under the lenses of webcams, the phenomenon has finally been noticed.

zoom fatigue

Recently BBC and Wall Street Journal published articles with a story about the phenomenon called «Zoom-fatigue». Sonya Dreisler, a San Francisco-based consultant, told the WSJ that she often used Zoom to reach clients before the lockdown. But now, but now that the same service has also been used to contact family and relatives, it has suddenly become extremely tedious.

A New York City law student told MIT Technology Reviewthat after long remote sessions on Zoom, ordinary video chats with friends and family turn into real torture. Trying to avoid such communication can cause feelings of guilt, because in isolation people do not have much space for communication.

In general, many people are now finding that video chats tire them much more than actual interaction with a live person. According to scientists, the effect of «non-verbal overload» is to blame.

Tension and non-verbal overload

The problem is that an online conference is fundamentally different from a face-to-face meeting. According to Suzanne Degges-White, a professor at Northern Illinois University, face-to-face communication allows interlocutors to be more relaxed. When you sit face to face with another person, you are more involved in the dialogue, but at the same time, you do not feel like you are speaking in front of him. “In a video chat, we have to be much more careful about what words we choose and when we enter into a dialogue”says Professor Degges-White.

Communication in this format is very different from personal communication, as it lacks useful physical cues. During a personal meeting, we can assess the psychological climate and mood of the interlocutor. But in the videoconference mode, we practically do not see and do not feel these little «tips». According to Professor Degges-White, due to the inability to read body language, we lose about 85% of non-verbal communication. That is why videoconferencing requires more focus from the participant than natural face-to-face contact.

“Many of us experience non-verbal overload”, explains Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Virtual Interaction Lab at Stanford University. Beilenson recently published in the WSJ a long articlededicated to this phenomenon.

This is especially evident in services like Zoom, which were not designed for social interaction in the format in which they are now used. “In a normal workplace, people rarely exchange long glances or look directly into each other’s eyes for long periods of time. But in Zoom, you see a grid of people in front of you who are looking at you from the screen throughout the entire conference.— says Bailenson.

«Fight or Flight»

In one experiment at Stanford, Bailenson and his colleagues studied how a person is affected by such a “constant gaze” from the screen. Tests have shown that the productivity of students who experience a virtual gaze actually increases. But it also increases the discomfort. “People report that they are very uncomfortable looking at the faces of the interlocutors during the entire conference”— explains Beilenson.

According to him, the secret lies in evolution. Over the past thousand years, man has practically not evolved. That is, despite all the high-tech toys, biologically modern people do not differ from primitive hunters from the African savannah.

At the same time, since a person has developed as a social being, his brain automatically pays attention to the faces of other individuals. When the user sees close-up faces of interlocutors on the screen in front of him, his brain automatically reacts to this as close attention to his own person.

Just imagine that you are on a bus and all of a sudden all the passengers turn around and start staring at you. Naturally, you will experience discomfort. Your brain automatically interprets this behavior as a threat. Anxiety and subsequent fatigue in such a situation is due to a natural biological fight or flight response. And you will never be able to explain to your «inner monkey» that the faces on the screen are not real. Mechanisms that have been created by millions of years of evolution cannot be turned off so easily.

virtual confusion

Also, psychological stress can be associated with the effect of «performance». By words According to Clemson University Associate Professor Marissa Schuffler, a person participating in a video conference may experience social pressure, as it seems to him that everyone is looking at him. “Public speaking is always a nervous and stressful activity”says Schuffler.

Also, silence in a video call can feel even more awkward than a pause in normal conversation. 2014 study published in the journal International Journal of Human-Computer Studiesfound that even a delay caused by technical problems in a conference call can make a person think that the other party is less friendly towards him.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that in quarantine, almost the entire social life of a person takes place on the Internet. This creates the effect of «virtual confusion».

According to Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor at the INSEAD research institute, people in different places engage in different social roles. But now the context has collapsed. “Imagine walking into a bar where you’re talking to professors, talking to your parents, and having a romantic date at the same time. That would be weird, wouldn’t it? But that’s what we’re doing right now.», explains Petriglieri. The Internet has become a single channel that people use to communicate with their acquaintances from different social groups. And it’s confusing.

How to deal with the load?

There are several technological innovations that could help mitigate the effects of zoom fatigue. For example, according to Jeremy Bailenson, instead of real faces, users could use virtual animated avatars. This would maximize social contact while minimizing the aforementioned non-verbal overload. Alas, the technology of virtual avatars is not yet available to everyone and is too complicated for a simple user. But even the average person can take some effective steps.

“Don’t have one video conference after another, — recommends Professor Suzanne Degges-White. — Take a break between meetings and get some fresh air».

The professor also recommends separate your conditional «home office» from the conditional «residence zone». It doesn’t have to be done physically. It will be enough to change the lighting and change clothes. It is important to let your brain know that there has been a “mode change” from home to work and vice versa.. “When you feel like you’re working around the clock and can’t leave the ‘office’, having tricks to help separate work and leisure becomes very important.”says Professor Degges-White.

Also it is useful to turn off the camera during video conferences. For example, during one of the conferences with colleagues, Jeremy Bailenson decided to introduce a rule: the camera should be turned on only for the person who is speaking at the moment. This really helped reduce the tension, as the silent faces disappeared from the screens of the participants.

In addition, Bailenson notes that many services, such as Zoom, allow you to control the position and size of windows with images of other people. And if you are uncomfortable looking at the faces of the interlocutors, you can simply reduce or hide them. «Play with the settings to find the ones you feel comfortable with.»he recommends.

Finally, you can simply stop using the computer. «Just use your phone», — says Bailenson. Professor Degges-White also approves of this proposal. “Communication can be much less stressful if you hear only the voice of the interlocutor,” — she says.

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