What Is Zoom Fatigue And How It Affects You?
What is Zoom fatigue? With millions of people working from home using video conferencing overall health issues have risen. Discover how Zoom fatigue can affect you.
Hi Trish Davies, here again and the topic for today is video conferencing with Zoom in particular. Video conferencing has seen exponential growth during the Covid-19 pandemic with platforms such as Zoom. Unfortunately, this can have impact on your health, so this article looks at what is Zoom fatigue?
Out of world-wide catastrophes there always is opportunity and the video conferencing industry has seen growth. Many businesses, business owners and professional people have been forced to change the way they communicate.
The pandemic has forced everyone to socially distance and much of the world has experienced lockdown. Physical and social interaction has been drastically curtailed which means millions of people must work from home. If they can!
Therefore, to carry on with your business and the way you earn money has gone virtual. No more handshakes, team meetings in offices, and face to face consultations with clients.
You, I, and the rest of the world must open up our laptops, desk top computers and log onto video conferencing software. For myself it has meant a drastic change to my daily coaching role.
I am contracted to a coaching organisation here in New South Wales, Australia. Before Covid-19 and the enforced lockdown I would travel to the company head quarters for my coaching sessions. Also, I would also travel to hold my trainings, but everything changed in March of this year.
Suddenly all the training had to go online, and Zoom was the platform of choice. Luckily, I had experience of Zoom which helped the transition. There are consequences though!
What Is Zoom Fatigue?
Zoom fatigue is something that people experience when they participate in teleconferencing sessions for an extended period. It affects both the attendees and the hosts, and it is because interacting with people online is different to in real life.
The idea of being in your own comfortable environment is very attractive to teach and be taught. You may have familiar things around you, access to your own coffee machine and the ability to nip to the loo when you want.
You don’t have to commute which is great both on a time and financial aspect. However, you can’t get away from the fact that you are fixated on a computer screen for hours on end. Even allowing for breaks which is a must!
As a host, coach, and trainer you are not only focused on what you are delivering you are focused on your virtual room. You can see your attendees and you must gauge if they are with you and engaged with your content.
As an attendee you are focused on absorbing as much as you can, taking notes and asking questions. There is so much going on that it stretches your mental capacity to the extreme. This is because there are less distractions when you are on a video call than in real life.
In a training room or boardroom there are distractions. You are with other people physically, so the discussion is a lot more animated. People will pipe up and throw in their opinion at any moment, people move around, come in and out. So, your focus sometimes shifts which in many ways is a good thing.
No so when you are staring at a computer screen. This is your main attention and can have these effects.
The Symptoms Of Zoom Fatigue And How To Address Them
The first and most common one is developing sore eyes. You may not be aware of this but there is an official term for it. It is called Computer Vision Syndrome which can make you feel irritated and a painful sensation in your eyes.
This can occur during and after your video conference. The simple fact is that your eyes are not designed to stare at computer screens all day. Some of the most common symptoms are as follows.
- Headaches and migraines
- Eye irritation and pain
- Blurred and double vision
- Excessive tearing and blinking
This is a simple exercise you can do to alleviate this. Next time you are on Zoom apply the 20-20-20 rule. After each 20 minutes look away from the screen and focus on something about 20 feet away. The stare at that for 20 seconds.
The reason for doing this is because it forces your eyes to re-adjust and then relax. This allows your vision to recover before you then turn your vision back to the screen.
Zoom Fatigue Causes A Lack Of Focus
The traditional business meetings and training sessions before the pandemic did cause a lack of focus. Sometimes they have been unproductive because they take people away from their normal working environment. Also, they disrupt thought processes, so it is hard to refocus when the meetings are over.
Virtual meetings and training sessions are no different. Once the meetings are over you scramble your headspace to position it for work again or implementing what you have learnt.
The answer is to have schedules in place so that trainers, hosts, and attendees can focus on a firm itinerary. When you have a good schedule, it creates outlines and structure which will keep everyone’s focus on point.
General Exhaustion With Video Conferencing
To carry on working millions of people have been forced to work from home and use video conferencing. Using video makes us communicate in different ways such as prolonged eye contact as you speak a lot with your eyes.
As you use less body language the emphasis is more on your facial expressions. Finally, you are limited on movement which means you are rooted to the spot and in the same position.
To ensure that all this happens you use more brain power because you and I are not used to this form of communication. It is not like physical interaction which is a lot more natural.
There is no definitive answer to this apart from being patient and sticking with it. After all you haven’t got much choice at the moment or for the foreseeable future. It will take some time to adapt and become comfortable with it.
Technology allows us to carry on working albeit in a different way than we are used to. You can still provide and receive value through video conferencing, but it is clear that it can be exhausting.
This prompted me to write this post today as I have just come Zoom after some 5 or 6 hours. What I have done is record a quick video outlining how this has affected me today. I thought it would be valuable to you as you will be able to relate to what I say and how I get through it.
This is my interpretation of what is Zoom fatigue, and I hope that it has been valuable to you. Working from home is very rewarding but you must ensure that you look after yourself. A healthy mind and body make you more productive. I welcome any feedback that you have on this subject, please leave your comments below.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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