By Alex Morrissey

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that, “Zoom ended 2020 with about 467,100 customers, a nearly sixfold increase from a year earlier”.

Not only has usership soared, but the frequency with which each person uses the platform has also been boosted. While we can agree that the platform has certainly facilitated virtual connectivity at a time when we needed it most, being forced to connect so frequently has taken a toll on many. 

From frustration to complete exhaustion, ‘Zoom zombies’, or more formally, ‘Zoom fatigue’, is becoming increasingly popular in the digital age.

After noticing this unfortunate trend, I started observing my routine before, during and after a Zoom call. Here’s why you might not have experienced these symptoms if your meeting/call was held physically.

Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense

At times, my meetings are about four hours long and not only must I try to stay alert but I have to look alert. Staring at my laptop/desktop screen for such a long time feels so overwhelmingly intense and exhausting on my eyes. They start to feel tired, dry and strained after some time. Soon after the effect on my eyes, the headache arrives.

The before, during and after routine is quite irritating

Bandwidth is so unpredictable, you might join a call with a strong connection but over the duration of the call WiFi signals are notoriously bad, even if you have a great package from an internet provider, depending on where you are and the structure of the building, if you aren’t close to the router you aren’t getting a solid connection, ethernet is the way to go for virtual meetings.

Whether it is my own connection or my colleague’s, it means I might have missed crucial information and to have that information repeated, the meeting results in being longer than planned, not to mention being frequently interrupted when the meeting is paused due to an incoming call.

Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility

While on a Zoom call, you’re not free to move about as you’d like to. Not that you’d be allowed that luxury during a physical meeting but at least you would’ve been able to step away from the table to grab a cup of coffee or a snack. Sitting upright to ensure that myself and the camera are properly angled, often leaves my shoulders aching and my muscles quite sore.  

The cognitive load is much higher in video chats

The mental effects of Zoom calls surely visit and really do overstay their welcome. After experiencing a bad connection, microphone issues on the call or other technical difficulties such as setting up the call in the first place, I’ll begin to feel mentally fatigued. Not to mention the physical effects of virtual meetings that have transitioned into affecting my cognitive functions.

To combat these zombie effects, I propose:

– More frequent breaks during meetings to avoid looking at the screen of your device  for over 15 minutes.

– Keep meetings as short as possible: get to the point and do away with the pleasantries

– Avoid monotonous meetings

– Use the interactive features of Zoom to make meetings more engaging and interesting, such as polls, breakrooms, reactions, virtual backgrounds.

– Avoid turning on camera unless absolutely necessary

– Avoid meetings if the information can be relayed in an email

– Add a co-host so someone else can start the meeting if you are running late