COVID-19: Working from home in the UAE and tired of video calls? Zoom fatigue is real

DUBAI: Have you been on a video call and just really wished it was over? It's a downward mental spiral, and you increasingly feel helpless about it; exhaustion sets in after countless hours on Zoom till your brain gets toasted.

Or have you been on a video call and been thinking about everything else you could be doing — except being on that video call? All these, and more, could be signs you may be experiencing “Zoom fatigue”.

We all agree video chats are great, as they help us stay connected in isolation. But experts, including Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab, say it can also wear us out.

Because it's relatively easy to set up, there can be endless online meetings, chats (and lessons, modules, quizzes for students). But video calls can be such intense virtual interactions that can be “extremely hard” on the brain.

“There's a lot of research that shows we actually really struggle with this,” Andrew Franklin, an assistant professor of cyberpsychology at Virginia’s Norfolk State University, told the magazine Wired.

So if you’re surprised at how difficult you find video calls — given that the medium seems rather “confined” to a small screen and has fewer overt distractions, you’re not alone.

In November 2020, Dr Jena Lee, explored the subject: “Like other experiences associated with the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom fatigue is widely prevalent, intense, and completely new.” Dr Lee, a child and adult psychiatrist at UCLA, wrote for Psychiatric Times, revisiting the mental fatigue process, based on the "internal-costs tradeoff" that happens in the mind unconsciously.

“At every level of behaviour, a tradeoff is made between likely rewards versus costs of engaging in a certain activity. The reward system accounts for alertness, energy and motivation — as opposed to fatigue,” she said.

Studies reveal that, using functional MRI data, live face-to-face interactions, when compared to viewing recordings, are associated with greater activation in the same brain regions involved in reward (ie, ACC, ventral striatum, amygdala). “So, more active social connection is associated with more perceived reward — which in turn affects the very neurological pathways modulating alertness versus fatigue,” Dr. Lee wrote.

So it turns out video calls are not just casual meetings. They are triggers for burnout. And in this pandemic times, not much is known about the double whammy of stress and the mental state of a COVID-changed world.

Work interactions have changed. Experts say it’s misplaced to think video calls are "more casual". However, with the new remote work phenomenon, some unwritten rules remain — to do better, do more with less. The pressure piles up. Video calls are useful in making this happen. Experts say, however, virtual meetings cannot compensate for face-to-face kind of interactions.

“For somebody who’s really dependent on those non-verbal cues, it can be a big drain not to have them,” Franklin told Wired. In a video call setting, there are no real social interactions, but work to be done is real. It’s a real human interaction, people must meet certain expectations, and the ability to wear flip-flops during the meeting is immaterial. 

The distance surrounding a person forms a space. The space within intimate distance and personal distance is called personal space. Psychologically, personal space is the region surrounding a person which they regard as theirs.

By default, most people value their personal space. They feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached. One big mistake people make is when they stay really close to the camera (all you can see is their nose). This triggers your brain to think someone is in an intimate space.

Moreove, experts say the prolonged eye contact in a gallery view of a video call has another unintended consequence: it has become the strongest facial cue readily available, and it can feel threatening — or overly intimate — if held too long.

So it’s just a fact of life during this period, perhaps beyond it, this feeling of being so beat after a day of video calls, as we become part of the receiving ends of various video calls.

To many, it has become so commonplace, so overused, that a Stanford University researcher said early on that its “effects are real”.

“Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote communication,” said Stanford’s communication Professor Jeremy Bailenson. “But just think about the medium – just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to.”

Bailenson, founder of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), deconstructed the psychological consequences of spending hours on end each day on these platforms. He outlined four issues — and solutions:

A video call involves excessive amounts of close-up eye contact, that’s highly intense. Both the amount of eye contact we engage in on video chats, as well as the size of faces on screens is “unnatural”.

Ever noticed that went to people about to get into a fight, they get really close to each other face-to-face? That's a really invasive kind of presence. Same thing when people are about to greet each other with a kiss. They get in-you-face. While in a normal meeting, people will be looking at the speaker, taking notes or looking elsewhere. On video calls, everyone is looking at everyone, all the time.

If you’re a listener, you are still treated nonverbally like a speaker. Even if you don’t speak once in a meeting, you are still looking at faces staring at you. "The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased,” explains Bailenson.

Solution: Minimise face size, avoid getting too close to the camera. Also, don't let your video tool occupy the full screen. Reduce the size of videocall window relative to the monitor to “minimize” face size. Moreover, Bailenson recommends that use of an external keyboard. This would increase in the "personal space bubble" between oneself and the grid.

It’s “unnatural”, explained Stanford’s Bailenson. “In the real world, if somebody was following you around with a mirror constantly – so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting feedback – you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would just be crazy. No one would ever consider that,” he added.

Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing, he said. He cited studies showing people who see a reflection of themselves are more self-critical. “It’s taxing on us. It’s stressful (if you do this for many hours every day). And there’s lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror,” he added.

Solution: Until video platforms change the default mode of showing user’s video to both self and others (when it only needs to be sent to others), use the “hide self-view” button (if your video tool has that option).

Video calls almost completely discards all natural nonverbal cues and gestures people naturally make and interpret subconsciously. In video chats, people must work harder to send and receive signals. When the internet signal is bad, the problem is compounded. It has transformed one of the most natural things in the world — an in-person conversation — into something that involves a lot of thought, i.e. “cognitive load”.

From making sure your head is framed properly, to showing to someone you agree — you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. “That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate.”

Solution: During long stretches of meetings, give yourself an “audio only” break. “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.”