New Research Sheds Light on Why All of Those Zoom Meetings Leave You Feeling Exhausted

By Brittany Freeman

It’s Monday, and you’re on your fifth virtual meeting of the day. You’re understandably exhausted by the time you finally shut your laptop, but why? Chances are, you would have been subjected to those same meetings in the office. Well, new research from the University of Georgia suggests that the main reason for so-called “Zoom fatigue” is not because of the meetings themselves, but because of the pressure of having the camera on during meetings. Psychologist Kristen Shockley says, “We knew people had the perception that Zoom meetings were leading to fatigue, but we didn’t know what about those meetings was the problem. Our study revealed that there’s something about the camera being on that causes people to feel drained and lack energy.”

Research from Stanford University also found that Zoom fatigue is very real, but the causes they found were more complex than just camera usage. According to their findings, there were four main reasons for exhaustion from virtual meetings - excessive amounts of close-up eye contact, seeing yourself during video chats, the need to stay in one spot during meetings, and an increased amount of effort to communicate due to the virtual nature of video chats.

It doesn’t look like Zoom is going away anytime soon - so what do we do in the meantime? Researchers have a few solutions:

• Exit out of the full-screen option and reduce the size of the Zoom window, in order to increase your sense of personal space while in meetings.

• Use the “hide self-view” button to decrease the fatigue that can come from watching yourself during interactions with others.

Luckily, researchers have filled in some the blanks in regards to how virtual communication platforms are affecting us, and we’re sure that there will be more insights to come.