Zoom fatigue

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A Zoom teleconferencing call French Hill hosting video conference with the National Journalism Center.png
A Zoom teleconferencing call

Zoom fatigue is tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with the overuse of online platforms of communication, particularly videotelephony. [1] The name derives from the cloud-based videoconferencing and online chat software Zoom, but the term can be used to refer to fatigue from other video conferencing platforms (such as Google Meet or Microsoft Teams).

Contents

The term was popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the use of videoconferencing software became common due to the effects of isolation and widespread lockdowns. [2]

The phenomenon of Zoom fatigue has been attributed to an overload of nonverbal cues and communication that does not happen in normal conversation [3] and the increased average size of groups in video calls. [4]

Symptoms

Physical

Although remote work was widespread in the software service and information technology sectors, the COVID-19 pandemic forced more than 85% of people working in traditionally in-person industries to temporarily change to a remote work environment. These disruptions in working habits opened up challenges within many households, such as a lack of dedicated workspaces. [5]

Zoom fatigue's primary physical effects are typically limited to the eyes, shoulders, joints, and the cervical spine. [6] Common symptoms include: headaches, migraines, eye irritation and pain, blurred and double vision, and excessive tearing and blinking. Besides physical, Zoom fatigue also has several mental effects, which, despite often being less evident, can be more problematic, as they can carry long-term implications for the body, while being more difficult to diagnose. Some of these mental symptoms include: decreased attention, sleep disorders, depression, depletion of mental or physical capacity and inertia. [7]

A study by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) conducted during the first two weeks of the COVID-19 lockdowns found that more than half of survey respondents reported higher levels of aches and pains compared with previous baselines, especially in the neck (58%), shoulder (56%) and back (55%). The study also found that poor sleep and increased risk of exhaustion were also causes of concern. The majority of respondents reported a loss of sleep due to worry (64%) and correspondingly, increased symptoms of fatigue (60%), which the IES attributed to be "possibly a consequence of nearly half (48%) reporting working patterns that include long and irregular hours". Besides those mentioned above, an increase in alcohol consumption and a decrease in healthy and adequate diets was also reported. [8]

A survey of over one thousand Americans in November 2020 found that 72% of the people were working from their bed, a habit which triggered health problems, with reported symptoms including headaches, back stiffness, arthritis. [9]

Psychological

In video calls, group engagement occurs without the participants' physical presence, triggering a form of constant dissonance that can lead to exhaustion. [10] Some sources allege that the apparent presence of enlarged human faces within one's private spaces can trigger threat responses by the brain. [11]

Contextual

The emergence of Zoom fatigue is associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which together with limitations on social contact, led people to change their habits. [12]   The inability to cope with the new technologies is called technostress. [10] Indeed, the digital divide theory [13] highlights that there are global differences in the access and use of digital technologies. For example, distance education is more difficult for students located in rural areas where connection problems are frequent. For all these reasons, during online live sessions, it has been challenging to maintain a good level of concentration and keep high rates of cognitive energy.[ citation needed ]

Emotional

Emotional consequences of Zoom fatigue are fundamental to consider as they have great importance in an individual's approach to social relations and the work environment:

Shift to digital consumption

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, communication through a variety of digital means had become increasingly common, in addition to typical physical interactions. This changed dramatically as lockdowns began and standard social practices became restricted, skyrocketing the digital landscape to the forefront of communication. [15] As a result, institutions and individuals were forced to quickly adapt to virtual interactions in place of physical ones, culminating in the overuse of videoconferencing platforms.

Increased usage of videoconferencing platforms

As virtual interactions became important, Zoom and other video conferencing platforms saw a meteoric rise. Zoom, which existed previously but was not widely known, became a dominant player, going from a total of 10 million daily meeting participants in December 2019 to 300 million in April 2020. [16] Microsoft Teams reported 75 million daily active users in April 2020, a jump from 70 percent in a month. Microsoft also recorded 200 million meeting participants in a single day the same month. Another important player is Google Meet, which added roughly 3 million new users daily at that time, hitting over 100 million daily meeting participants. In the same month, Cisco also reported a total of 300 million Webex users and saw sign-ups close to 240,000 in a 24-hour period. [17]

Increased multifunctionality of videoconferencing platforms

Traditionally, many people have used these platforms in a more conventional way, like business calls or to stay connected with family and friends; however, there was an increasing number of creative use cases during the COVID-19 crisis due to the availability of different devices and software solutions. In this regard, video calls enhance the sense of togetherness by facilitating the sharing of daily routines. For example, couples tend to leave the video on while doing other activities and interact occasionally with the other partner or children who want to "show and tell" at the same time, since communication through video call is more natural than voice or text.

Families and friends started celebrating holidays online, such as Easter and the Passover Seder; additionally, they participated in other activities such as watching movies, playing games or celebrating birthdays. Some physically oriented activities related to social life or personal interests have also become virtual, such as holding church services or yoga classes in an online format.

People actively participated in webinars to get support such as psychological support, career or health counseling as a way to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. [18]

State of research

The growing public concern about causes and consequences of Zoom fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic is reflected in intensive media reporting. [19] [12] [20] At the same time, researchers have been starting to investigate the phenomenon of Zoom fatigue by suggesting underlying psychological mechanisms, [3] developing measures such as the "Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale" [21] and conducting empirical studies. [22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wolf, Carolyn Reinach (May 14, 2020). "Virtual Platforms Are Helpful Tools but Can Add to Our Stress". Psychology Today . Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Google Trends". Google Trends. Archived from the original on July 31, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  3. 1 2 Bailenson, Jeremy N. (2021). "Nonverbal overload: A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue". Technology, Mind, and Behavior. 2 (1). doi: 10.1037/tmb0000030 .
  4. ↑ McCulloch, Gretchen (November 30, 2020). "A Mission to Make Virtual Parties Actually Fun". Wired . ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  5. ↑ Suresh, Geetha (2020). "Workspace and postural challenges in Work from Home (WFH) Scenario". International Journal of Grid and Distributed Computing. 13 (2).
  6. ↑ Lufkin, Bryan (February 18, 2021). "What happens when you work from bed for a year". BBC. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  7. ↑ Johnson, Jon (February 25, 2020). "Negative effects of technology: Psychological, social, and health". Medical News Today . Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  8. ↑ Bevan, Stephen; Mason, Beth; Bajorek, Zofia (April 2020). "IES Working at Home Wellbeing Survey-Interim Findings". Institute for Employment Studies .
  9. ↑ "Sleep, Work, and COVID-19: In-Depth Study". Tuck Sleep. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  10. 1 2 Bullock, Angela; Colvin, Alex D.; Jackson, M. Sebrena (April 29, 2022). "Zoom Fatigue in the Age of COVID-19". Journal of Social Work in the Global Community. 6 (1). doi: 10.5590/JSWGC.2022.07.1.01 . ISSN   2642-1763. S2CID   231948968.
  11. ↑ Wolf, Carolyn Reinach (May 14, 2020). "Virtual Platforms Are Helpful Tools but Can Add to Our Stress | Psychology Today". Psychology Today . Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  12. 1 2 Jiang, Manyu (2020, April 22). The reason Zoom calls drain your energy. BBC Worklife.https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting
  13. ↑ Lupton, Deborah (2014). Digital Sociology. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN   9781138022775.
  14. ↑ Korunovska, Jana; Spiekermann, Sarah (October 2019). The Effects of Digitalization on Human Energy and Fatigue: A Review (PDF) (Report). Vienna University of Economics and Business. arXiv: 1910.01970 .
  15. ↑ Hall, Jeffrey A. (2020). Relating Through Technology: Everyday Social Interaction. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108629935. ISBN   9781108629935. S2CID   225181255.
  16. ↑ "90-Day Security Plan Progress Report: April 22". Zoom. April 23, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  17. ↑ Warren, Tom (April 30, 2020). "Zoom admits it doesn't have 300 million users, corrects misleading claims". The Verge. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  18. ↑ Hacker, Janine; vom Brocke, Jan; Handali, Joshua; Otto, Markus; Schneider, Johannes (2020). "Virtually in this together – how web-conferencing systems enabled a new virtual togetherness during the COVID-19 crisis". European Journal of Information Systems . 29 (5): 563–584. doi: 10.1080/0960085X.2020.1814680 . ISSN   0960-085X. S2CID   224947325.
  19. ↑ Fosslien, Liz; Duffy, Mollie West (April 29, 2020). "How to Combat Zoom Fatigue". Harvard Business Review. ISSN   0017-8012 . Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  20. ↑ McConnon, Aili (March 9, 2021). "Zoom Fatigue: The Differing Impact on Introverts and Extroverts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  21. ↑ Fauville, G.; Luo, M.; Queiroz, A.C.M.; Bailenson, J.N.; Hancock, J. (2021). "Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale". Computers in Human Behavior Reports . 4 100119. doi: 10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100119 . S2CID   238949468.
  22. ↑ Bennett, Andrew A.; Campion, Emily D.; Keeler, Kathleen R.; Keener, Sheila K. (2021). "Videoconference fatigue? Exploring changes in fatigue after videoconference meetings during COVID-19" . Journal of Applied Psychology . 106 (3): 330–344. doi:10.1037/apl0000906. ISSN   1939-1854. PMID   33871270. S2CID   233300126.
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