Are You Zoomed-Out? Here's What to Do
Many of us are on Zoom throughout the workday, and we're exhausted.
Sending nonverbal signals over video is much harder than we realize.
We tend to look at our own faces, which generates discomfort and reduces focus.
Instead, pay attention to others; minimize the image of yourself, or even hide it.
The Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford has been researching what has become known as Zoom exhaustion. It’s that zombie-like feeling you get after a full day of video calls. Here are some key facts you should know if you’re feeling extra tired after a day of Zooming.
Why Zoom Is So Stressful
First, Zooming involves long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up, simulating the intimate interpersonal contact. Suddenly we interact with casual acquaintances, coworkers, and even strangers in ways we typically reserve for our closest relationships. Of course, the size of faces on a screen depends on your computer monitor’s size, how far you sit away from your monitor, the view configuration you choose on Zoom, and how many faces are in the grid. But generally, the size of the person’s head is much larger than it would be if you had an in-person face-to-face conversation.
Research on nonverbal communication finds that we adjust our distance from others in social situations. For instance, when faces are closer in an elevator, we lessen the intensity by looking down and keeping mutual gaze to a minimum. On Zoom grids, faces are bigger in your field of view than they are face-to-face when you consider how groups naturally use space in physical conference rooms.
For instance, imagine a Zoom meeting with nine people in a three-by-three grid. Each person is looking directly at the other eight people’s eyes for the meeting’s duration, regardless of who is speaking. Contrast that with an in-person meeting held in an actual conference room with nine people, where each person speaks for about an equal amount of time. It’d be very unusual for one listener to stare at another listener, and even stranger for someone to direct their gaze at another listener for the duration of a meeting. But on Zoom, the amount of eye gaze is eight times higher than it would be in an actual nine-person meeting.
We Have to Work Harder When Sending and Receiving Signals Over Zoom
In face-to-face conversations that take place in person, we use direct eye contact sparingly. Even if the meeting doesn’t feature a third object to look at, like a PowerPoint screen, two speakers will spend most of the interaction averting their gaze from each other. Of course, the amount of gaze in a face-to-face social interaction depends on many contextual factors. These adjustments are impossible to make on Zoom.
In face-to-face interactions, nonverbal communication flows with effortless and incredibly complex synchrony that usually happens outside of our awareness. On Zoom, nonverbal behavior remains complex, but research finds that we need to work harder to send and receive signals, creating an increased cognitive effort.
On the sending side, we must consciously monitor our nonverbal behavior and send cues to others that are more intentional. Examples include: adjusting and centering yourself in the camera, nodding deliberately for a few extra seconds to signal agreement, and smiling and waving in an exaggerated way to signal the beginning and end of the meeting. Research shows that people speak 15 percent louder when interacting on video. This constant monitoring of behavior adds up. No wonder we are feeling exhausted.
Another source of extra cognitive effort relates to receiving cues. In a face-to-face conversation, we draw tremendous meaning from head and eye movements, which signal turn-taking, agreement, and many emotional cues. On Zoom, these movements are largely out of context. For example, in a face-to-face meeting, a quick, sideways glance has a particular meaning, and a third person watching is likely to understand its meaning. On Zoom, you might see a pattern in your grid that seems like one person glanced at another. But, this is probably not what happened because we often don’t have the same grids. Even if the grid were held constant, it’s more likely that a sudden glance indicates the person noticing a calendar reminder or a chat message that suddenly popped up on their screen. We constantly receive nonverbal cues that would have a specific meaning in a face-to-face context but have different meanings on Zoom.
We may adapt to this over time. It’s good to acknowledge that it still takes effort to overcome our automatic reactions to nonverbal cues. Try not to make evaluations of yourself or others based on nonverbal cues alone. Especially if these evaluations and assumptions are negative, they are likely to be incorrect.
We Spend Too Much Time Looking at Ourselves, Feeling Self-Critical
As Zoom users, we see reflections of ourselves more often and for more extended periods than ever before. Without the proper mindset, looking at one’s own image is likely to activate an uncomfortable level of self-consciousness, which can reduce the ability to concentrate, generate self-criticism, and create a general sense of awkwardness. In an earlier post, “Can You Be Too Self-Aware?” I discussed how to get out of uncomfortable states of self-consciousness. One way is to shift your attention from looking at yourself to focusing on others. You can do this by minimizing your self-view or even hiding it. But it might also be a good idea to try looking at yourself with compassion. In my work teaching mirror meditation, students report feeling less self-conscious on video after regular mirror meditation practice. In mindfully focusing on their own image, they begin to associate seeing themselves with compassion and a sense of calm. One student remarked, “Seeing myself grounds me in the meeting.”
Though you’ll always have the option of hiding from your own image (and hiding from others), it might be a better long-term strategy to see yourself with compassion and keep your sense of humor during Zoom meetings.