What is Zoom Fatigue? How to prevent yourself from this Symptom?
Zoom Fatigue
People’s lives changed when COVID-19 struck. One can undervalue how much our lives have changed since the outbreak. The sudden shift to working from home is one of the biggest changes we’ve all had to adjust to.
Video conferencing has largely replaced social interaction in offices due to these rapid lifestyle shifts. Meetings, quick phone calls to assign work, catching up with a small group, and so on. Professor Jeremy Bailenson of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab has discovered that sitting in front of a monitor for hours at a time to attend these meetings can be exhausting. ‘Zoom Fatigue‘ is a term used to describe this condition.
What is Zoom Fatigue?
Zoom Fatigue is named after the phenomenon known as “Zooming,” which has become the popular cultural slang for a video conference call, much like “Googling.” Because of its popularity, Zoom gets an unwelcomed spotlight here; your company may or may not use Zoom, but what we discuss here applies to video conferencing in general, so keep that in mind.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, what exactly is Zoom Fatigue? According to Stanford researchers, long hours spent on video conferencing platforms may tire you out more than you think. Long video chats can be mentally and physically draining, and there are many reasons for this.
How to Cure Zoom Fatigue?
Zoom fatigue, scientifically referred to as derealization, is a symptom of Bipolar Disorder that can be relieved by changing your behaviour or treatment plan. There are some other effective solutions too as given below:
Resist the urge to multitask
It can be very enticing to search email and do other seemingly mindless things when you are not the one sharing your computer screen on a call.
Multitasking, on the other hand, overburdens your already overwhelmed brain, finding it impossible to keep up with what’s going on in your Zoom and exacerbating the exhaustion you’ll feel afterwards.
Give yourself time to breathe
When we’re in stressful meetings or calls, our bodies sense it as well, so taking 10 to 15 minutes to get the temperature down—both mentally and physically—is highly beneficial.”
Say no when you can
There were undoubtedly moments before the pandemic that you had to tell someone, “I’m sorry, I can’t make the meeting.” Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you can’t say no; you do have other priorities, including your own mental health. “Give yourself permission to say no or reschedule as needed,” Durlofsky advises.
Turn your camera off
This may appear self-evident, but eliminating the burden of being on camera may make a big change in the stress level—we can’t just be “on” all the time. You know when a meeting is crucial, and you should be visually present, so if it’s one where you won’t be saying much, see if your team cares if you sit off-camera.
Talk to your manager
Tarry encourages being imaginative and inquiring about other ways to get information from meetings without using Zoom. Explain how committed you are to your job, how much time you spent on Zoom. Zoom can divert you from other activities or be mentally exhausting, and what solutions you’d like to investigate.
