A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue

[jazz lady]

What is Zoom fatigue and is there a biopsychosocial explanation for this COVID-inspired phenomenon? The answer might surprise—and comfort—you.

Zoom fatigue” describes the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms of communication. Like other experiences associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Zoom fatigue is widely prevalent, intense, and completely new.

In an effort to understand this new fatigue that may tax the more than 300 million daily participants of Zoom, experts representing diverse disciplines including acoustics, business, and the social sciences have contributed their explanations. For instance, audio has been proposed as the main reason that video meetings are draining. It turns out that millisecond delays in virtual verbal responses negatively affect our interpersonal perceptions, even without any internet or technical issues.

Other explanations attribute the fatigue to an underlying predisposition painted by the pandemic backdrop, such as increased financial stress and unemployment. Cognitive factors are also likely to contribute to fatigue, as an increased ability to virtually multitask threatens our attentional capacity. Exploring such multifactorial etiologies has delved us into a deeper understanding of the fragile intricacies that make up the precious in-person social interactions we had before COVID-19.

A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue (psychiatrictimes.com)

I posted this on Facebook as I thought it was interesting and very timely, as I had just complete a weekend conference via Zoom. After 6 hours Friday night, 14 hours Saturday, and 5 hours Sunday on Zoom, I was absolutely wiped out. I attended the same conference last year in person, flying up and back to New Hampshire to attend. I wasn't nearly as tired last year as I was this year and sought to find out why.

Now imagine what children are going through with all this virtual learning. I am used to working long days on a computer, but the psychological toll of this has to be even more numbing than what I felt. Kids specifically and people in general NEED those human interactions.

 

[GURPS]

Now imagine what children are going through with all this virtual learning.

My daughter has breaks between classes, and is chatting with her bestie on Discord all day ....


Meetings in General are a waste of time, studies have shown, after 45 min people are mentally checking out unconsciously