Stanford Researchers Identify Four Causes For 'Zoom Fatigue' and Their Simple Fixes (stanford.edu) 74
In the first peer-reviewed article that systematically deconstructs Zoom fatigue from a psychological perspective, published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior on Feb. 23, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), has taken the medium apart and assessed Zoom on its individual technical aspects. He has identified four consequences of prolonged video chats that he says contribute to the feeling commonly known as "Zoom fatigue." Below are four primary reasons why video chats fatigue humans, according to the study: 1. Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.
2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.
3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.
4. The cognitive load is much higher in video chats. The article also offers solutions to alleviate the fatigues.
2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.
3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.
4. The cognitive load is much higher in video chats. The article also offers solutions to alleviate the fatigues.
Crazy thought... (Score:5, Interesting)
Stop doing video chats. Seriously we've had remote work for a long time, people cover and disable cameras for a reason. Also, Zoom is a security nightmare so stop using it in your workplace anyway. Not worry about nation security is one thing but trusting the entity not to be assisting in industrial espionage is insane.
Re:Crazy thought... (Score:5, Informative)
Hear, hear!
One group that I have been working with for a few years now always holds its meetings by phone. Has for longer than I've been with them. They saw no reason to change, and the once-every-couple-of-weeks meetings continue to be highly productive. Without video.
Re:Crazy thought... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes and *gasp* you can do this with Skype, Zoom, or whatever other software as well as phones. There is no productivity gain ot video.
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Yes and *gasp* you can do this with Skype, Zoom, or whatever other software as well as phones. There is no productivity gain ot video.
Yeah, I never turn on my video for zoom meetings unless there is a need for it.
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Video is Needed for Somethings (Score:2)
There is no productivity gain ot video.
That depends on what you are doing. If you are trying to show students how to solve physics problems you need a document camera or whiteboard to work through the maths, show diagrams etc. and it has to be interactive so you can respond to student questions. Obviously, it does not involve eye contact nor seeing yourself but hopefully, it does involve a higher cognitive load!
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That is what screen sharing is for. As a bonus both you and students can write on 'the board' without anyone having to find pants before class.
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You are focusing on a technical distinction when the appropriate domain is social. The biggest difference is projecting an image of the user or their personal space into the public forum of the meeting. One simply utilizes motion picture elements while the other compromises a feeling of privacy and safety leading to social anxiety and depression. I will allow that screen sharing actually could cross a line if one required projecting their full screen without notice.
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You are focusing on a technical distinction when the appropriate domain is social.
If the appropriate domain is social then you can't start the discussion by using a highly technical argument that screen sharing avoids the need for using video from a document camera. I've never heard of someone feeling their personal space is being invaded by a video of some paper and I am pretty certain that the paper doesn't care about being videoed up close either (although to be fair I've never tried asking any) so I am struggling to see the social aspect you mention here at all.
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"If the appropriate domain is social then you can't start the discussion by using a highly technical argument that screen sharing avoids the need for using video from a document camera."
We were having a discussion about 'zoom fatigue' and my suggestion was to just disable the camera. This avoids the fatigue and social anxiety. You hijacked the discussion with mention of a document camera which is something of an edge case. I simply pointed out that screen sharing can be used to cover this edge case.
I will r
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Digital whiteboard aside I do have to apply philosophical charity and admit that your underlying point is correct. There is a purpose for the ability to utilize video in various applications but the default should be to not have the expectation that everyone will switch on video just to have an online meeting of some sort. It raises public performance anxiety in attendees and speakers for no reason and requires special effort be made to make oneself 'presentable' as well as introducing any sort of appearanc
101 - People thinking meetings are working (Score:1)
Remote work has enabled the professional meeting attender to spend yet more time in meetings and calls.
Video makes it worse and the "must show your face video" mentality of professional meeting attenders is a downward spiral in the toilet bowl.
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Zoom isn't the only remote meeting software there is, and this research applies to other products too. People are starting to use "Zoom" generically, referring to meetings held on competitors' products as "zoom meetings".
I suspect that the remote meetings are going to be with us a long time after the pandemic is done. This isn't just because of CFOs downsizing office space, we'll probably see remote meetings replace a lot of business travel. Understanding how people react to the characteristics of these
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"Zoom isn't the only remote meeting software there is, and this research applies to other products too... I suspect that the remote meetings are going to be with us a long time after the pandemic is done."
Yes, Zoom is actually the new and known insecure player with almost everyone already using Skype pre-COVID and using good old phone conferences before that. Like I said, everyone disables their camera for a reason. There is absolutely no benefit to enabling your camera for work calls or requiring people en
Re:Crazy thought... (Score:4)
everyone disables their camera for a reason.
That is demonstrably false. If it were true, then nobody would be using Zoom, WebEx or any of those other products. They use them because they think there is some benefit to simulating an in person meeting. They may be wrong, or they may understand their own needs, probably some crazy mixture of the two from my experience.
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As someone who has been telecommuting for about two decades and videoconferencing for about half that time, these days I keep my laptop lid closed, which disables the camera. I sometimes share my external monitor's screen in video calls to do demos and presentations, doing it over telephone phone would be a bit awkward.
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Just so. Keep the lid closed, cover the camera with tape, coat it with vaseline. All smart ideas. Not only does this save you an hour a day wasted getting presentable for a public appearance it also protects you from creepers and attackers who might remote enable your camera.
Re: Crazy thought... (Score:1)
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And comb my hair. One minute tops.
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False, people mostly use those products with the camera disabled. WebEx and similar exist to share screens not pointless video of the remote worker in their bathrobe.
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I was more or less required at one job to have the camera on for all meetings because of the non-verbal cues, making sure people are paying attention. It did feel draining, but I didn't have the words to express why it felt wrong. This is an interesting study they did.
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It depends, staff member to staff member probably not. Staff to customer, well, what ever the customer decides. Staff to suppliers, I want to look into the eyes, when negotiating, catch the lies, trap them in lies, leverage the contact for as long as it takes to get the best deal (I never negotiated by phone, I would get them to my office and trap them there in a customer sales person dialectic, unable to leave until I get the deal I wanted).
Video calls are about friends and family, obviously, probably a zo
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"Staff to customer, well, what ever the customer decides. Staff to suppliers, I want to look into the eyes, when negotiating, catch the lies, trap them in lies, leverage the contact for as long as it takes to get the best deal (I never negotiated by phone, I would get them to my office and trap them there in a customer sales person dialectic, unable to leave until I get the deal I wanted)."
There is no justification for this. Anyone who has interacted with me on this forum could tell you I'm about as anti-pc
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Zoom wasting their bandwidth being one of them. Possibly number one in countries where the network providers charge per byte.
Here in the UK, some people have connections that are unable to do audio and video at the same time. Perhaps BT should be using more Huawei kit.
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Sounds like a great way to empower international competitors with your ideas.
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I don't have a choice. My Master's program uses Zoom, so I don't have a choice there, and the professors have asked us to have our cameras on.
Ugh.
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Indeed. It depends a bit on the team, but my last one basically never turned the cameras on.
The ability to share slides is nice though, even if not strictly needed.
And yes, definitely not Zoom.
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You make it all sound so simple. Now please convince the company I work for of that. I'm sure they'll head all your arguments and make the necessary changes right away.
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Changes? Just put tape over your camera.
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Maybe they just don't like feeling they are on stage giving a public presentation all day. Just say no to cameras.
Simple Fix (Score:1)
Why do academics have to make everything so damn complicated?
So, don't use the Video for most of them...? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, we all know we're working in our underwear, t-shirts and sweatsuits on dress up days....who wants to see that?
I kinda thought that would be the majority of folks, I mean the only time I use video on one of these things, is maybe on the weekends when it is a few friends I actually want to see for a bit.
Do ya'll actually use the video some/most of the time?
Re: So, don't use the Video for most of them...? (Score:2)
Video makes it easier to connect if you're actively talking to someone. You can see the cues of when you can interrupt them, and whenever they don't appear to understand, agree, or are just not that interested.
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yes, but in a meeting environment, everyone's stress goes way up if they can't make the alligator mouth gesture while the long winded guy drones on.
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Do ya'll actually use the video some/most of the time?
I turn on my camera when I am speaking and I want to get my point across.
But most of the time, it's off.
Since Covid hit, I spend less time in meetings, and it is easier to get stuff done during meetings.
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Yeah, turning off camera, ignoring video is the fix for all of those.
1) While we may be fatigued by seeing faces, we are also fatigued by knowing all those people see us. So visually having them 'back down' isn't a fix for this anyway. Turn off your camera unless maybe you want to speak. Look at the video when you might want to interject for cues that you might interject.
2) *Not* knowing what the camera is seeing is an issue. Again, turn off your camera because if you don't even see yourself, well, some peo
Face2Face 10 min then blame Comcast (Score:4, Interesting)
NO ONE protests when I turn my camera off. I'm not even particularly ugly, especially compared to my team. We do the face to face for 5-10 minutes, I claim to have bandwidth issues, which I usually am, shut off my cam and the other guy does too and then the call is much more relaxed. We can both pace. We can both look things up if we need to without feeling self conscious about being on camera and googling details. It's a nice compromise. I don't crave looking at my coworkers since it's all dudes, but when I admit that afterwards I am glad I did. There is something intangibly better about seeing someone's face every few days, can't explain it. However, keeping camera on the entire time is fatiguing.
Not just no, HELL no. (Score:2)
No, we don't use video, no matter what the brand of transport. We actually removed the cameras from our office machines, so we can't. When we have client calls, if they ask, we tell them that the security rules they imposed on us prohibited video calls.
Usually, within a few minutes, most of the cameras on the call are turned off.
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Actually, I used to use video all the time. Still do--if I'm in the office.
But schedules shifted and I now have early morning meetings which I take at home because I don't want to have to wake up earlier than I do now and get cleaned up. Also, my house is not necessarily suitable for public viewing at any given moment.
As others have pointed out, I can see expressions and other non-verbal cues when talking to people that I don't see without video. It's also a reminder that there's a real human being on th
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And some people are working naked. ;)
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Yes, OnlyFans would not be the same with the cameras off.
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I dunno about ya'll, but on all the Zoom, Skype, Teams teleconferences I've had for work, and there are a LOT of them these days....99% of us never turn the cameras on, many don't even have a camera attached.
I mean, we all know we're working in our underwear, t-shirts and sweatsuits on dress up days....who wants to see that?
I kinda thought that would be the majority of folks, I mean the only time I use video on one of these things, is maybe on the weekends when it is a few friends I actually want to see for a bit.
Do ya'll actually use the video some/most of the time?
I know, right? What's the benefit supposed to be? Lip reading? Seriously, most of the meetings could just as well be text-only chat anyway.
Teams uses my professional-ish photo as my avatar when I have the camera off, which works fine.
Zoom meetings are less stressful (Score:3)
But maybe I am alone in this feeling?
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Places with office politics are the ones developing Zoom fatigue.
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Honestly. I have my feet up, I have my headphones on to block out the ambient noise. There are no people in my personal space. What is not to love? But maybe I am alone in this feeling?
Yep. And just ALT+TAB to get into the meeting at the last second, not drop everything and run down the hall.
the solutions (Score:2)
1. Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense. 2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing. 3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility. 4. The cognitive load is much higher in video chats 1. Sit further back. 2. Place a blob of Blu Tac on your camera 3. Make a wire harness to hold your phone up and walk around while Zooming 4. Me lose brain?
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1. Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.
1. Sit further back.
Agreed on this one. Yeah, I like seeing people. No, I don't need to see just your face. Head and shoulders is fine.
2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.
2. Place a blob of Blu Tac on your camera
I assume you mean turn off your camera.
I don't have a problem with that, but I believe you can hide the personal view if you're so vain that you can't deal with the image of yourself.
3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.
3. Make a wire harness to hold your phone up and walk around while Zooming
Actually, as a smoker who isn't allowed to smoke in the office, I've done the occasional Zoom meeting out in the parking lot when the meeting is long. I'll be in the office in the meeting and feel like a cigare
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Facial viewing is a waste of thought. (Score:2)
The best way for humans to share information precisely is via text and images, not faces. The desire of PHBs to see faces is, to put it kindly, fucking stupid.
Video conferencing itself is idiotic unless an object is to be jointly viewed via video. Humans should not want human contact because it's not efficient. We built computers to be better at what we do than we are, and the less intellectual interaction is contaminated by DISTRACTIONS like viewing physiognomy the better. It's hard for simples to understa
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A: I hate my printer!
Vs.
(Video of me smashing a printer on the ground, dousing it with gasoline, and lighting it on fire. )
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The best way for humans to share information precisely is via text and images, not faces.
Right.
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You read text and responded with text, not a grimace.
Simple Solution (Score:2)
The simple solution, and the one I use, is to simply not have a video camera. Works swimingly.
Sounds more like one cause, one solution (Score:2)
Stanford Researchers Identify Four Causes For 'Zoom Fatigue' ...
Cause: Using Zoom.
Solution: Stop using Zoom.
Turn your dang cameras on (Score:2)
What I find fatiguing is to be MC'ing meetings where 90% of the participants leave their cameras off, leaving me talking into a blank screen [1] while they Toobin off. If you want to not attend the meeting, great, don't attend, but don't log in to "make your presence known" or "provide oversight" and then not participate.
[1] I trained as an engineer, not a professional newscaster or actor who deals with greenscreens all day
Cameras are bad, relinquish wanting them. (Score:2)
There is no reason to want facial displau when audio conveys the message and faces contribute nothing. Logging in permits listening. There is no reason to want the video aspect of these meetings or to want to see faces.
We speak to "blank (phones) screens" during teleconferences. That's the same thing. Meetings should be "converted" into voice only interactions but ideally they should be done by text messaging instead for ease of recording and precise communication.
Text is good. Faces are useless and voice d
You won't believe (Score:2)
This crazy, one-step solution will totally solve your Zoom fatigue.
I'm a huge fan of no-camera meetings. (Score:2)
99% of the time, I don't turn my camera on and I only turn my mic on to talk. I'm usually taking notes and drinking tea and there's no reason for someone to be interested in me doing that. Plus, I have very comfortable natural lighting which is BAD lighting for my MS Surface webcam which works best with blinding 6000K white lighting.
Moreover, and here's my secret to a happier lockdown worklife, I'm often taking care of annoying grooming during Zoom meetings. I'm not even kidding... I'm often plucking ear ha
Video isn't needed. (Score:2)
Upvote for #2 (Score:2)
Just turn off video and hide the zoom window (Score:2)
All 4 causes avoided.
I have video off by default in zoom, then put the zoom window underneath other windows so I won't see anybody's faces moving around. I treat zoom just like a phone conference with quick and easy screen sharing function.
I can walk around, take a drink, eat snacks, yawn openly, roll my eyes when I hear something stupid, etc. I can hop from one meeting to another in seconds. Works better than face-to-face meeting.
turn off video (Score:2)
I've now been working from home for almost a year.
For the past 3 months or so, I rarely turn on my camera at all, and it's a huge benefit. Not just because I can dress however I want, but also because I can pace around (which I like to do when thinking, and which I quite often did in physical meetings), I can pet my cat, I can go and fetch a drink, lean back, whatever.
I've been doing this for a while now and nobody has ever asked me turn the camera on. I have it on in a few meetings where protocol says I sh
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The audio is fatiguing too (Score:2)
Even with the video switched off, conference calls are an energy drain.
1. When you're in a room together, your ears can locate each voice, and what you see matches what you hear. In a conference call, that's lost: it sounds like everyone is in the same location. This makes it more difficult to distinguish between voices.
2. In a conference call, having two people talk at once is incredibly distracting, due to 1. and the propensity of the software to try and transmit only one voice at a time.
3. Conference cal
...and stop having meetings with too many people (Score:2)
So turn off the video (Score:2)
I've been meeting remotely since almost a year before COVID due to a family member's medical issues. Just don't turn the ^&^$^$**&*&* camera on.
Put a piece of tape over it if you don't trust yourself or the software.
Nobody cares. I think I've turned it on once or twice to wave at people. Problem solved.