Zoom Fatigue: A Review

Abstract

A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is not just about physical health; It disrupts daily life on a global scale by changing individual and social attitudes and behaviors. In these conditions, video conferencing applications are becoming mainstream worldwide for the continuation of work, social life and education. Video conferences have helped us to remotely connect study rooms, class-rooms, but after attending one or 2 virtual meetings, listening to an online webinar or two, and per-haps speaking, people begin to express feeling exhausted and nervous. Thus, a new term emerged, also named after a popular application, resulting from the excessive use of video conferencing plat-forms: 'Zoom Fatigue'. Zoom fatigue is defined as feeling tired after a meeting over a video confer-encing tool. Fatigue appears to be different and specific from normal work fatigue. Mechanisms spe-cific to existing video conferencing applications that can cause Zoom Fatigue are suggested. The first mechanism mentions mirror anxiety, which can be triggered by self-gaze in video conferences. The second mechanism is the feeling of being trapped by the need to stay within the camera's field of view. The other mechanism has to do with the increased cognitive load of managing nonverbal be-haviors in this new communication environment. COVID-19 is increasing the long-anticipated trend of remote work. Even as social distancing recommendations are eased and face-to-face meetings be-come safe again, video conferencing apps seem to have the potential to continue to increase produc-tivity and save energy.

Keywords

• zoom
• fatigue
• nonverbal communication
• hypergaze