While remote video conferencing helps promote “pandemic proof” work situations, research shows people around the world are getting tired of the format. The lack of personal interaction and constantly having to see people’s studies or bedrooms onscreen creates a strange situation that many are becoming increasingly put off by.
Many video conference participants almost compulsively look at their own faces onscreen, something that obviously doesn’t happen during in-person meetings at the office.
This aspect of so-called Zoom fatigue has prompted Zoom software developers to implement a “hide self view” feature. The Harvard Business Review concluded that video conferencing is exhausting for a lot of people, and suggested switching to audio only or moving screens off to the side rather than have them face us directly, all to reduce onscreen stimuli.