With much of the world in lockdown, our time spent on video callshas risen rapidly.
There is no doubt that platforms like Zoom are very useful.
But all this time spent on video calls has its problems.
We rely on it connect with people, yet it can leave us feeling tired and empty.
It has given us some semblance of normal life during lockdown, but it can make relationships seem unreal.
This feeling has spurred talk of a new psychological affliction:Zoom fatigue.
When we interact with another person through the screen, our brainshave to work much harder.
This additional information helps our brains make sense of what is going on.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
This can sometimes put us at a disadvantage.
Shutterstock
The greater effort it takes to make sense of whats going on means we often take mental shortcuts.
This can result in mistakes.
Applicants were more likely to lie and judges were less likely to spot falsehoods.
A third study found that court sketch artists made less accurate drawingswhen gathering information via video call.
Our biases can get worse if the line is glitchy.
Even a one second delay can make us think people on the other end of the lineare less friendly.
One experiment found that when the video quality was low, people weremuch more cautious in their communication.
Emotionally exhausting
Video conferences can be emotionally exhausting as well.
One study of interpreters working in the United Nations and the European Union who did remote translationsfelt alienated.
Therapists conducting sessions through video calls reported concerns they had lost connectionwith their clients.
As a consequence,they tended to perform worse.
The students anxiety was heightened when they could see a big picture of themselves on the screen.
A strange quirk of video conferencing is that when we sit there we see ourselves mirrored back at us.
This can make us more self-consciousand less certain in our interactions.
We may try harder but we also find itmore stressful.
The spread of video conferencing can also trigger a desperate search for recognition.
These exiled employees feel overlooked and try everything to make themselves seen.
They search for interesting material and anecdotes to share with co-workers.
They take on additional tasks which they hope will catch the eye of their managers.
Avoid multitasking while on a video call to cut your cognitive workload and help you pay attention.
There are also other ways of communicating, as well as video calls.
Text messaging, email and phone calls can be better than video conferencing.
Even letters have their upsides.
One study found that hand writing a thank-you note makes recipients much more happythan we expect.
Another showed therapeutic benefitsfor those who write them.
There are also times when no communication works best of all.
Sometimes its best to simply embrace the silence.
