DR SIVA KUMAR
Tisha, a schoolteacher, just finished her online class and fell asleep immediately in her drawing-room, which has been her makeshift teaching office for the past six months. She used to handle her classes of people full of emotions through conversational nuance and empathy. Not only did her live classes go online because of COVID-19 but also her department reviews, parents’ meetings and even her ladies club and family gatherings, all zooming her off into virtual space.
Like Tisha, most of us are often meeting virtually and are ourselves feeling like a little box on a screen. Expressing ourselves through this small box can make us really tired. No matter what we’re using, whether it’s Google Meet, Skype or Teams, if used inappropriately, it can result in exhaustion that is now termed Zoom Fatigue.
Psychologists demonstrate that behind every successful in-person conversation, there are several non-verbal cues that occur, such as sharp intake of breath, leaning forward, handshakes and most importantly, eye contact. Establishing eye contact during a video call is extremely difficult as one has to look back and forth between webcam and screen. If the other person is also trying for similar eye-contact, the situation may really worsen leading to all four eyes rolling independently!
And you can forget about eye contact during gallery view when all meeting participants appear on the screen. To keep at least one eye on everyone during such meetings one has to be either a sunflower starfish (24 eyeballs at the end of its movable legs) or a monarch butterfly (they have 12,000 eyes!).
If we still try viewing those little boxes with our lone pair of compound eyes, the prolonged split in attention can confuse our brain’s central vision with unfamiliar, surplus and meaningless stimuli. This can make our brain overwhelmingly tired, making us look like a Zoombie.
On the other hand, missing gestures during human interaction can mean listeners get an incomplete picture of what is being conveyed, forcing them to pay sustained and intense attention to what is being spoken. Therefore, virtual interactions are hard for the brain.
There occurred a fundamental change in daily life as a result of COVID-19; strict separation measures profoundly resonated with the new social distancing culture, and everyone was looking for a safe way to continue work. As we are living in the most technologically advanced and well-connected time in human history, video call applications quickly became a panacea.
At a time when coronavirus is making people feeling anxious, scientists have quickly found ways of using video call applications effectively with less exhaustion. They advise:
1. Don’t multi-task: Although it may seem to save time in the short-term, multi-tasking will exhaust your brain. It has been found out through research that multi-tasking may reduce your productive time by 40%.
2. Take periodic breaks: Taking micro-breaks of 10 to 15 seconds every ten minutes and mini-breaks of 3 to 5 minutes every thirty minutes not only will give your body a rest but will improve your performance by reducing discomfort.
3. Avoid on-screen stimuli: Research has shown that most users spend time gazing at their own faces or looking at other users’ background furniture, plants and wallpaper, or trying to work out what books are on their shelves. When our brain tries to process all of this, we end up with mental fatigue. The best solution is to either sit in front of a plain background or turn off the video.
4. Keep your social sessions optional: Keeping them as opt-in ensures that people don’t participate unwillingly.
5. If possible, switch to phone calls or email: Decisions can be quickly made over the phone or by email, rather than by video calls.
6. Switch off video: While attending a meeting with people outside of your organisation, make sure to switch off the camera.
At first glance, these tips could seem difficult but following them will certainly prevent you from experiencing Zoom Fatigue. The new normal is, of course, tiring, but if used wisely, we can safely continue our routines.
Someone posted the following conversation on social media:
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