Videoconferencing Fatigue is Real, Study Finds 68
Feeling especially drained after a day on Zoom is not a figment of your imagination -- videoconferencing fatigue (VCF) is real, according to a study penned by a quartet of Austrian investigators. From a report: "Self-report evidence, collected all around the world, indicates that VCF is a serious issue," wrote the authors of a study appearing in Scientific Reports, a journal published by Nature Reports. However, most available research on VCF relies on personal accounts of the problem, and focuses on the cause rather than the consequences, explained the researchers.
To determine the effects on the brain caused by hours of videoconferences, the team measured electrical activity in the noggins of 35 university students who watched a 50-minute lecture while wired into an electroencephalogram (EEG). The researchers asked another group to watch same content live. The researchers also calculated effects on heart rate for the two groups with electrocardiography (ECG), measured before and after videoconferencing sessions. Subjects were also given cognitive attention tasks and asked for self reports on moods. Those attending the live lecture reported they felt more lively, happy and active, and less tired, drowsy and fed-up than online counterparts.
To determine the effects on the brain caused by hours of videoconferences, the team measured electrical activity in the noggins of 35 university students who watched a 50-minute lecture while wired into an electroencephalogram (EEG). The researchers asked another group to watch same content live. The researchers also calculated effects on heart rate for the two groups with electrocardiography (ECG), measured before and after videoconferencing sessions. Subjects were also given cognitive attention tasks and asked for self reports on moods. Those attending the live lecture reported they felt more lively, happy and active, and less tired, drowsy and fed-up than online counterparts.
Is this with or without cameras on...? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been working remote full time for about that last 17 years.
For pretty much 99.999% of the time we used video conferencing (Teams now and the other iterations before MS Teams)...we never have cameras on.
The biggest reason for that is, with security of our laptops provided, the cameras are disabled.
But we don't have and never seem to have had a problem with meetings like this.
I can get up and walk around with a headset on during these meetings....or sit/stand at my motorized desk here at home...stuff I cannot do in an office at a REAL in person meeting.
And let's say the worst that happens...you doze off at home, the meetings are recorded so you can go back and see what you missed.
Yes, it happens to the best of us....but in person meeting, you have people seeing you nod off while you do your best. to not fall asleep at some boring person's presentation and even if successful, you don't really hear or absorb anything they're saying.
I think much of this is just MORE propaganda to try to drive people back to the office....likely by the folks that in a few years may lose their shirts on their commercial real estate holdings.
I don't see "Zoom Fatigue" any worse than sitting at a boring meeting in person fatigue....ALL meetings suck after all.
Re:Is this with or without cameras on...? (Score:5, Insightful)
it's funny, back before covid and working in an office, the 'in person meeting' fatigue was just as bad (you just had to do a bit better job of hiding the mind destroying boredom). Even if most meetings are actually useful and serve a purpose (they aren't), they are certainly usually too long and consist of a lot of pointless back and forth by people who really love to hear themselves talk.
Maybe the issue is it's easier to let the mask slip so to speak when remote and stuck in a relatively pointless meeting.
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it's funny, back before covid and working in an office, the 'in person meeting' fatigue was just as bad...
Yep, the article is badly titled. It should be titled, "It's the meetings, Stupid!" In-person meetings suck the most, followed by virtual meetings.
Videoconferencing isn't the problem. The problem is Meetings. They suck and are usually pointless wastes of time.
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If I turn off the camera, I find that I end paying attention to everything but the meeting - unless I actively inject myself to every topic (I'm that guy.) I'm sure that is an issue with my ADD and lack of displine.
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I take notes to keep myself engaged.
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I'm assuming from the synopsis that this was for cameras "on"...
Did you actually read the synopsis?
I don't see why you'd think cameras would be turned on for students watching a video lecture.
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I don't see why you'd think cameras would be turned on for students watching a video lecture.
It doesn't seem like they did a control test and measurements with those same students watching another 50-minute lecture in-person.
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I don't see why you'd think cameras would be turned on for students watching a video lecture.
It doesn't seem like they did a control test and measurements with those same students watching another 50-minute lecture in-person.
Correct; the controls were different students, same lecture:
You know what fatigues me worse? (Score:3)
Being in actual face-to-face meetings all day is utterly exhausting. Much more than being in video meetings all day.
Having a few voice-only zoom meetings between periods where I can focus on my work in the silence of my home office is not exhausting at all.
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Of course, if it's one of those meetings that should've been an email, none of this matters.
I've been working in elearning & online & distance education since 2000. When bandwidth capable of supporting multiple video streams became widely available in the early 2000s, peopl
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Not so much camera on or off, but self-view on or off.
Zoom started a bad practice of having self-view on by default which only adds to the fatigue.
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Err...doesn't no camera == no self-view?
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Transmitting your video isn't causing fatigue, it is viewing yourself which does. Pre-COVID no one ever had self-view enabled, the industry standard was to not see yourself. Then Zoom and MS changed the game because their solutions could not be trusted or users couldn't figure out video, so they defaulted self-view on.
All of a sudden, everyone is staring at themselves as well as others. The fatigue is not looking at others. Rather, it is looking at yourself, mentally processing how you appearing to others,
Remote != Available (Score:2)
Just because you're remote doesn't mean you're available all the time.
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I am during the "core hours" for sure....but often much more than that....
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There are actually people I'm available for 24/7. It's mostly the people who know that they should only contact me in a real-time fashion when real-time reaction is crucial, and they know that this is at best the case in 1% of the cases. For about 30%, a message in a Teams chat is more appropriate and for the rest, mail is good and fast enough.
TURN OFF THE CAMERA (Score:5, Interesting)
The fatigue is due to the camera.
Turning it off makes a HUGE difference.
I turn on my camera for 1:1 meetings, I turn it off for all others and I recommend others do the same.
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Also turn off sound.
Then minimize the videoconferencing window if you're a weenie, or switch to a different virtual desktop of you have a real operating system.
Then fuck off out the room and blame "internet troubles" if anyone notices (they won't).
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That sums up my strategy for meetings pretty well.
Why do you think my productivity soared in home office? I get a lot more accomplished now that I optimized meetings.
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Indeed. Feeling observed causes stress and a lot more so when you cannot look back and check who observes you. This really is not a new or revolutionary insight.
Lecture vs meeting? (Score:3)
It's interesting that they used lectures as the test. I'd guess that most people in day long videoconferences experiencing fatigue are not attending lectures, but rather attending meetings for work.
Having taken a bunch of classes the past couple years in person and via videoconferencing, I can attest that the subject certainly impacts if the online meeting/lecture is fatiguing. I had some classes which I enjoyed remote, while others I wished were actually offered in person.
As it relates to business/work, I'd venture to say the fatique is just the pure number of meetings. Having supported videoconferencing for the past 20+ years, the fatigue is likely do to back to back meetings, in ability to get a break, senseless meetings, etc. Videoconference adoption has really made it super easy for people to mismanage meetings and be inconsiderate (unintentional, or otherwise) to those attending.
PS: I'm glad Webex was mentioned in the article header. It is far to often overlooked and a much more suitable and quality product over Zoom and MS Teams. Before the haters chime in, those who dislike it please make sure you have used the latest version, not the one from 20 years ago. Please also do back-to-back comparisons between the 3 platforms as well. It will become clear which platform offers a higher quality experience.
I'd like to see a stream of what they watched (Score:3)
They go into great detail regarding how they measured fatigue, but they don't really go into much detail regarding what the video watchers saw. Here's why it might matter...
Years ago (more than a decade), I was tasked with helping a faculty member get a lecture series online. As faculty often do, he ignored every one of my suggestions and ideas. Ultimately his recorded hour-long lectures basically were the equivalent of watching a PowerPoint slideshow with a voice-over track (full screen slides, 100% of the time, you never saw the speaker. Additionally, the slides had no animation at all - like watching an old photo slideshow).
In the end, my only involvement was converting what he handed me over to MP4.
I imagine even sitting in his class would have been tiresome, but those videos were horrible! I had to review them for technical problems, and it was extremely hard to stay awake!
On the other hand, I've seen professionally produced video lectures that are engaging and interesting. These usually involve a fair bit of visual transition between speakers, slides, and sometimes other materials. Also it helps a LOT if the speaker's voice is engaging.
I don't doubt that what these researchers reported has some truth behind it... but I think knowing more about the presented lectures would be critical to deciding just how much fundamental truth is there.
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When i was going to UTSA, it was amazing how many of the proffesors didn't even bother with that and instead just linked to someone else's youtube video lectures.
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but they don't really go into much detail regarding what the video watchers saw
I agree. It is really important what actually happens. I attended a university course where the lectures were streamed live over zoom. It had a video stream of the presentation and another video stream showing the lecturer. The second stream was controlled by an assistant, so one could also see what the lecturer was writing on the blackboard, and the assistant also kept track of the chat, so questions would be asked to the lecturer quite fast after being asked in the chat.
I tried both the live and online le
Time for STFU Cops. (Score:1)
The biggest problem I see is that verbose blowhards talk too long and repetitiously. Nobody polices them because they are often the ones with the most power.
Meetings should be places to iron out the tricky/contentious issues via back-and-forth dialog, not present details; there are better tools for that.
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That is just really bad corporate culture.
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Or bad human nature. Happens too often. Maybe the really good orgs clamp down, but I mostly see the mediocre ones in (non) action. I'm not skilled enough for the good ones ;-)
A Bunch of CRAP (Score:1)
Yes, it has been proven that scientists are determined to cause cancer in laboratory rats.
This is no different.
There's no such thing as "fatigue" from doing something you choose to do, can end at any time, kick the power cord and later send a "power failure apology email" or whatever.
BUT HEY let's pretend that science is involved and this fake bullshit excuse for idiots to whine about using their computer is real.
Control group?
Double blind study?
Documented numbers?
How do you measure "fatigue"?
A Bunch of CRA
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Ummm that's just nonsense you made up.
"BUT HEY let's pretend that science"
Like pretending fatigue doesn't exist if you choose a task?
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It's not science if you don't like the answer? Interesting.
So, Zoom fatigue got a new name (Score:3)
So, Zoom fatigue [stanford.edu] got a new name.
A quick check of google tells me that "zoom fatigue" still gets almost a hundred times more hits than "video conferencing fatigue" or "video-conferencing fatigue".
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"People get tired after a day of work."
Great research, team. Your Nobel Prize is secure!
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I use Zoom around 4 hrs per day for interviews of engineers seeking a job with us.
This is very much a two way conversation and maybe that's what makes it sooner entertaining than tiring.
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well, it makes sense that they wouldn't want to tie it to a particular product. It is surely more generic than that!
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A zoom meeting is way less draining than one in-person in my experience. When (not if) it gets boring, I can just flip the bullshit into the background and get back to doing something relevant. Not as easy in an in-person meeting, the narcissists get a bit miffed when you blatantly pay more attention to your mail than to their droning.
In person is worse (Score:3)
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Yes, the ventilation. It's not that the narcissist who loves to hear himself talk is repeating himself for the fourth time now.
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I've been in meetings where the speakers would be considered a weapons grade tranquilizer if they were allowed to talk for more than 15 minutes.
But I agree, them droning on is a waste of valuable oxygen. We should keep them from abusing their breathing privileges.
Re: Oxygen...ventilation (Score:1)
Gives me an idea. Maybe if my colleagues agree to all eat beans before meetings ran by blowhards, we can end them on time.
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I have to steal that one, sounds like a neat way to make the boring meetings bearable.
Videoconference is a struggle (Score:2)
Between piss poor audio, piss poor video, dropouts, and the robot seeming to choose what to show at random, it's hard to make out what's going on
Instead of being able to concentrate on the topic being discussed, most brainpower is wasted simply trying to understand wtf everybody is saying
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My experience of using zoom has been worlds different than what you just described here.
I wonder what is special about your environment that ensures you are plagued by these problems, whereas most people aren't.
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As for the cutoffs, they are stressful when the meeting's important and yes, not everyone has a dedicated fiber... Mine's been installed a couple months ago, but I'm still waiting for the activation.
None of the Above (Score:2)
I'm one of those ADHD Aspies who can't process auditory information well or quickly. It doesn't matter if the meeting is live or video (or audio only); I get so distracted that I miss pretty much everything that follows "Now listen carefully, this is important." My eyes just glaze over. I have to take copious notes at every meeting - which in itself makes the experience worse because I'm trying to type as fast as the speaker is talking, and if there's an accompanying slideshow I have to also take screenshot
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The words that it does miss tend to be the most important though - try throwing 'Interferometric synthetic aperture radar autocorrelation scales' at it a few times in English with a very strong non-English accent and see how it does.
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It's Underloading. (Score:2)
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But video conferences have the advantage that you can actually do something productive while the people who love to hear themselves talk do so.
Don't you worry, it's not like they actually care whether anyone listens or pays attention. Though there is an advantage to not having to have a video feed, nobody notices when you go take a dump during the endless tirade so you can get at least something sensible accomplished.
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In-person meeting fatigue is just as real (Score:3)
Did this study control for the most obvious factor, number of meetings of any kind? If it didn't account for the fatigue people experience in in-person meetings, it didn't really analyze what it purported to study.
not a video conference (Score:2)
>"the team measured electrical activity in the noggins of 35 university students who watched a 50-minute lecture"
That is not a video conference. It is just watching a recording. A video conference, by most peoples' definitions, is a live, two-way exchange of audio and video.
That said, it is my experience that 95+% of actual "video conferences" are a total waste of time and can be replaced with a phone call (AKA "audio conference" or "conference call").
It seems "normal" now that I am sent stupid "invite
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A video conference, by most peoples' definitions, is a live, two-way exchange of audio and video.
You haven't been to a video conference by my CEO yet. Trust me, it's closer to a lecture, something that could be at least as well done, and ignored, in a recording.
That said, it is my experience that 95+% of actual "video conferences" are a total waste of time and can be replaced with a phone call
Actually, quite a few of them could easily be replaced by an email exchange or, if time critical, a Teams conference. With the added bonus that the droning narcissist doesn't want to have writer's cramp so he shuts up eventually.
There's a word for this! (Score:2)
Weird. For me it's the other way around. (Score:2)
Every time I had to go to an in-person meeting, I felt like I needed a really long vacation afterwards, while I usually feel quite relaxed after a teams meeting.
Maybe because I'm easily bored and during a teams meeting, I can actually continue working while the narcissist who loves to hear himself talk drones on for an hour or two.
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Same. Video meetings are much easier to handle versus in-person.
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Plus, it's much easier to just squelch the droning idiot if he goes on your nerves.
Try that in a face-to-face meeting and you won't hear the end of it.
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>Try that in a face-to-face meeting and you won't hear the end of it.
Man, some people will call the cops on you for the slightest strangulation...like, I just choked him for a few seconds, relax, chill out people.
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Right? I mean, what purpose would a tie serve other than being a handy tool to stop someone from droning on and wasting oxygen?
Stick To Email. (Score:2)
I agree, however... (Score:2)
While I agree I still say questionaires/self-reporting isn't science.
Multitasking (Score:2)
Commuting & Traffic Fatigue Much Worse (Score:2)
This whole post is a gaslight (Score:2)