After the Coronavirus spread on a large scale from the world, some new patterns began to appear in our lives as a kind of coping with the epidemic to preserve the health of individuals, with the economy and education not affected as a result of the ban. This led to the use of alternative methods of gatherings face to face to not disrupt studies and work, while at the same time adhering to prevention measures, foremost of which is physical distancing.
More than a year after the pandemic caused many employees to work from their homes, virtual meetings have become a familiar part of their daily life. Although it is a phenomenon that shortened distances and saved a lot of effort, there is a negative impact of it that was not taken into account, which is known as “zoom stress”.
Camera Eye
After the spread of this stress recently, it was necessary to take a pause to research it; He called on researchers from the University of Arizona to study the matter and come up with scientific reasons behind it rather than the possibilities. In a new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, these researchers looked at the role of cameras used in remote meetings and conferences, which are mostly held by zoom technology; Perhaps this is what led to the attribution of stress to this technique.
There is always an assumption that if the camera is turned on during meetings, the person will be more interactive, along with other pressures due to setting up his location that may require an official background, a decent appearance in front of the rest of the meeting or conference members, and keeping the children out of the room, be alert to the surprises that may occur on the scene; Such as the sudden appearance of a guest visitor, or the sounding of a fixed or mobile phone, and similar effects.
After a 4-week experiment - involving 103 participants and more than 1,400 observations - the researchers found it really stressful to be in front of the camera during a virtual meeting.
When participants were using the cameras or were asked to turn them on, they reported greater fatigue than their peers who participated in the meetings without using them; Stress was associated with less audio, and lower participation, during meetings, so camera users were less involved, which goes against the accepted view that cameras are required to participate in virtual conferences and remote meetings.
Women and New Employees
When the study went further, these effects were found to be stronger for women and new hires. The researchers explain that new employees and women are the most vulnerable groups in terms of their position in the work environment, and also that the non-fixed employees had an increased feeling of fatigue when they had to keep the cameras on. Women often feel so pressured by the situation that they do not care for their children at the time, and new employees feel they have to be in front of the camera and participate in order to show productivity.
Four Reasons
Researchers from Stanford University have been in the midst of researching the causes behind zoom stress after it has become a problem that is added to the current public concern related to the pandemic, and what the health of the world may lead to, and through their current study they found 4 reasons.
They examined the psychological effects of spending hours each day on these platforms. After the first article that systematically analyzed Zoom stress from a psychological perspective, which was published in the Journal of Technology, Mind, and Behavior, they evaluated Zoom in terms of its technology and found that there are 4 effects of long video chats that contribute to the feeling of stress.
First: The focus of the eye on the screen to a large extent, in addition to the presence of a number of faces on it, which is not normal; In regular meetings, the person looks at one face, which is the face of the person speaking, and has the ability to move his eyes wherever he wants and look down to take his notes. In virtual meetings, every participant looks at all the participants all the time.
Second: When the participant is watching himself in the video for a long time, this is stressful in itself, and most video chat platforms display a box for what the person is like on the camera while chatting. This is also unnatural because in the real world, according to researchers, if someone is constantly following you in the mirror and you see yourself in it while talking to people or giving notes, it is a distraction.
Third: Voice conversations allow the person to move around and move as he wants, but in video conferencing, most cameras have a limited field of view, which means that the person must remain in the same place without movement, or limited movement in an abnormal way. Researchers say there is increasing scientific evidence that when a person is in motion, their cognitive performance is better.
Fourth: The mental burden is greater in the case of video conversations. What happens in normal face-to-face discussions is that nonverbal communication is natural and everyone in the audience naturally makes nonverbal gestures that are easy to interpret. out.
Preventive Options
The usefulness of communication platforms, especially Zoom, should not be underestimated, but at the same time, it must be dealt with so as not to leave a stressful impact on its users. In this regard, researchers from Stanford University recommend some steps that reduce stress; Such as taking advantage of the option to minimize the full screen, reducing the size of the zoom window relative to the screen to reduce the size of the face to reduce mental stress, as well as using an external keyboard and an external camera so that there is space to allow some distance from the screen. During long meetings, take a break if possible.
There is a measure of research development on how to measure fatigue due to the use of technologies; It is a 15-item questionnaire that was tested across 5 separate studies over the past year with more than 500 participants. It asks questions about fatigue in general, physical fatigue, and other causes of stress; Among the questions: Do you feel tired after using video chat?