Want to become a
writer at Eat My News? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young
Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders
There was a time when online video
conferencing was limited to getting in touch with your NRI relatives or your
family members that too once in a while. But due to this lockdown, all
corporate meetings are held in the mode of video conferencing and the most
popular app for this is “Zoom”.
Zoom Fatigue - It’s Surprisingly Complicated
Being on the video call is much more exhausting as compared to face-to-face meetings. The reason behind this is that we need to focus more on non-verbal cues like expression, tone, the pitch of the voice, and more importantly body language. These things require more attention and consume a lot of energy.
What else can be tiring? Silence! Yes, it can be. Silence though creates a rhythm in a face-to-face conversation, but when it happens on a video call, we may become anxious about the working of technology.
It also makes the participants uncomfortable. As per the research of German Academics: even delays of 1.2 seconds made participants perceive that res-ponder as less friendly or less focused.
Imagine yourself at the interview!
An auxiliary factor is that when you know
everybody is looking at you, it feels like you are on a stage where you need to
perform under social pressure. Being under “performance pressure” is more
stressful. In addition to this is selecting the location or background
appearing in the meeting is itself a challenging job.
How It Impact’s the Regular Lifestyle
There are various circles in our life. Circles of work, friends, family which is now happening at the same place in some corners of the room may be. As a human, we are having multiple roles under each circle. When these roles are confined to a singular location it adds negativity to each one of them.
But what happens if we are zooming with
our friends, will it relax us? The answer is no. This is because it doesn’t
matter whether you call it a “Virtual Happy Hour” its still is meeting because
we are mostly using these tools for work. A proper chat with friends will feel
more social and will be more engaging.
What Can Be the Remedies for Such Video
Conferencing Tiredness?
If we replay the old days, we used to take breaks from people by spending time on gadgets. Now we take breaks from our systems for seeking real human live connections. There is some good news. We can actually get away to some extent by below tips:
1. Disconnect when things become overwhelming, and you feel like taking a break.
2. Establish daily routines, you should have a separate routine for evening and day, also your weekday and weekends.
3. Practice mindfulness, meditate, do yoga.
4. Have compassion
for others and yourselves.
5. Spend some more time to actually check into people’s well being can be mentally satisfactorily.
6. Building
transitional periods in between video meetings, stretching a little bit, have a
drink.
Apart from the above measures, one can actually avoid “information overload” which can be achieved by sharing relevant documents with detailed comments which can reduce the need to meet. Limiting the number of meeting in a day will also suffice.
“Zoom-Boom” the Need of the Hour!
There can be a never-ending debate on the pros and cons of conducting meeting in online media. The positive side is that it actually keeps things going. Also for people who avoid physical meetings, meeting online is proved to be blessings in disguise for them. It also reduces biases due to social and emotional signals.
Imagine if you go to a bar, in the same
bar you are talking with your professor, meeting your parents, dating someone
isn’t it weird? This is what we are doing now. We are playing all those roles
in front of the monitor. Most of these parts are played by us in different
places, but now the lifestyle has changed, and this is causing mental
extortion.
Written by – Utkarsh Samaiya
Edited by – Adrija Saha
Social