Are Zoom calls leaving you overstimulated and stressed out?

Many months into lockdowns across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust our lives into a virtual space, so much so that we're working on Zoom, playing games on Google Hangouts and catching up on Houseparty. If it is leaving you feeling overstimulated, distracted, exhausted or anxious, you're not alone. So many people are reporting similar experiences of feeling overwhelmed by virtual communication, that it's earned its own slang term: Zoom Fatigue. 

Since it is the only means of connecting, it can be hard to say no to a video call invite. Whether you're being invited to an after-work happy hour or a family game night, it can be hard to convince yourself that it is okay to decline it, considering that you may not have the same solid excuses you could have had for an IRL meeting. 

“Behaviour 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, coworkers and even strangers. Software like Zoom was designed to do online work, and the tools that increase productivity weren’t meant to mimic normal social interaction,” says professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

Why is interacting on a video-call interface that much harder than an in-person conversation?

“In-person conversations are more natural than video calls,” confirms Mumbai-based counselling psychologist Dr Tara Mahadevan. “It is easier in face-to-face conversations to pick up non-verbal cues like body language and facial expressions, whereas on video calls, you have to focus that more intently to absorb all that information,” she says. 

These cues are important to paint a holistic picture of what the person on the other side of the conversation is doing and feeling. If a person is only shown for the shoulders-up, their hand movements are covered. If the connection is less than ideal, it is almost impossible to parse any non-verbal cues. “In a normal work meeting of about 10 people, everyone is talking, looking at notes, perhaps typing. But the time spent in mutual gaze—looking directly into the eyes of one another—is tiny. When it occurs, it lasts only a few seconds,” says Bailenson.

Plus, being on video calls requires you to focus that much harder on how you look, and how you come across to other people, considering that you can see yourself the entire time. “In most of those calls, we are taxed by the wish to make a good impression on people whose reaction we can’t gauge so clearly. And we can see ourselves, often, which tends to preoccupy us. We are under double monitoring, in a sense,” shares Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor of organisational behaviour at INSEAD. “You feel like you are watched constantly,” agrees Dr Mahadevan.

Because everyone has to look focused the entire time, being forced to pay attention for an entire session can be draining. Bailenson refers to a study at Stanford University that showed that when people are exposed to large virtual faces, they flinch physically, proving that a video call is simply an hour-full of microstressors that the brain and body is constantly being affected by.

Why are video chats more taxing than phone calls?

Even on the phone, non-verbal cues are impossible to gauge, but the complete absence of them means that your brain doesn't have to try to do the work at all. “Phone calls remove all the cognitive demands of monitoring your own and others’ non verbals, and remove the ambiguity of video meetings, and the conversations rhythms are more familiar,” shares Petriglieri. 

Even if you're hanging out with friends or family, you can leave the video call feeling exhausted anyway. “Even when you're talking to people you care about, once the brain is tired, it's tired,” says Dr Mahadevan. “Looking at the screen all day is not something we are designed to do,” she confirms. 

This stands true for most people, whatever their personality type. While most people thought introverts would thrive in an environment without too much face-to-face engagement, these personality types still find it difficult. “The demands of being on all the time, of having all these video conferences, and of having all our relationships confined in the same stream may be taxing on both extroverts and introverts,” says Petriglieri. “The introverts might be exhausted by the intrusiveness of video conferences, perhaps, by others’ open window into their personal space. The extroverts might be exhausted by the thickness of that window, and by its limits,” he says.

Also read:

Why balancing your cortisol levels could be the key to better health and happier skin

All the tips you need to help you work from home, efficiently

6 essential tips you’ll need if you’re leading a team remotely during the coronavirus lockdown