Man, you nailed this one. Plus, I have a mild version of a neurological condition that makes it difficult for me to keep my head completely still for long stretches of time. So on top of all the fatiigue you described, I have to spend about 25% of my brainpower concentrating on looking normal. Wears me out big time, especially if it goes on for more than an hour.
This really hits where I live. For years now, I've been too far away from people I care about most of the time and FaceTiming just is NOT the same.
I love that my 2 year old granddaughter has no trouble showing how "not the same" it is, by trying to hug the phone, or looking sad that we're not in the same physical space. She hasn't learned how to pretend it's the same. She will, soon enough, but not yet, and I love how openly her face says it all. The most deprived senses in a Zoom meetup are those of smell and touch--even just the change in the air quality that sharing physical space brings. There's also the 3D factor--seeing people fully in the space they inhabit vs the tiny little box...
These days, most of my work is remote, as I'm teaching and editing for schools in Asia. When I teach or do art for a client in a shared area, I find that I have energy for several hours--some days suck, of course, but 2-3 hours just fly by. On the other hand, 2 hours in a row is my limit online. Even then, I choose to do the classes standing up to keep my energy from flagging, and to stay enthused for kids whose attention is already prone to wander through this medium. More often than not, after taking my patient dogs for a walk following those classes, I need at least a 2 hour nap.
Despite the impression I give when in any social setting, my personality is at least half introverted--profoundly so. Too much time in the altered reality of "Zoom" contact leaves me with less ability and/or desire to interact with others in real time. Introversion starts to take over and snuff out the extroverted side.
To be clear, I agree that all of these video communicating options are fabulous, even vital, and I don't in anyway wish to see them gone. As I enter into the ironically dubbed "golden years," I absolutely love what filtered lenses do to freshen up my overall look, too!
But, when I walk up to the door of where my grandkids live my heart is full of happy anticipation. Before FaceTiming with those same kids, I feel anxious and get "performance" anxiety: "will we be able to really connect and "get each other?'" is always at the back of my mind.
I favor phone calls over Zoom whenever possible so that I can pace and talk. I find that I think much better and my energy levels improve. Zooms have their place, but shouldn't necessarily be the default.
Love your phone analogy about taking more energy, but I don’t think I agree with VR yet (we need much more data and experience as it evolves, especially since AR helps for me)
I also don’t know if I agree with energy expenditure of people I know on zoom vs strangers. Admittedly my experience is either full time sales calls, vs business meetings/group work hours, but I 1000% preferred ppl I knew (sales is probably diff though)
Either way, I find having a routine and goals helps immensely. One danger is to roll out of bed 3 min before the first call.
Healthy food, getting sun by quickly walking outside, or honestly walking inside (I have a walking desk which helped immensely) all helped me at least
This is really interesting because I feel much less drained on a video call than I do in a room with people. I had also had it with office work in 2019 and the pandemic has allowed me to work fully remote for a few years now. I don’t like phone calls, even with friends, but video makes me feel like I’m in the room with them so I can pick up on physical cues. I do have a policy of no longer than an hour at a stretch though, if we’re doing a many-hour planning session for instance then we have 5-10 minutes away at the end of each hour. Having said that I try and ensure similar on the rare occasions I’m in a room with colleagues, chance to shut up for a bit and stand up and stretch.
Totally agree with this. Another interesting exception for me is Zoom calls where half of the participants are in-person -- I tend to treat those more like phone calls because there are 3-4 people in the room with me and 3-4 online. So I'm either watching my colleagues in the room or staring out the window, and only checking the video feed when necessary (back and forth dialogue to determine who's speaking next or if someone sounds like they're gesturing haha).
If I'm in a 1-1 Zoom meeting with someone I'm familiar with I also sometimes have a tendency to stare off into space, which does help with the fatigue. The more I pay attention to the video, the more I pay later in exhaustion.
If I thought I could get the people I can’t meet with in person (pretty much everyone I currently associate with professionally) to talk to me on the phone, I would always opt for that. But I think it carries an unfair stigma. That anyone “calling in” doesn’t have any tech chops and should probably plan on being largely excluded from the discussion because they can’t wave their hand or effectively interrupt another speaker without sounding like background noise.
Middle school nostalgia vibes aside, a phone-only call would remove an ENORMOUS wall of self-consciousness for me that I am always navigating on video calls. There’s a pressure to “look good,” which is in itself exhausting. I guess that pressure exists in real world applications, too, but it’s far easier to “read the room” with regard to the effectiveness of one’s efforts in the presentation department. This would be those missing human qualifiers. Has anyone ever uttered the words, “Great to see you again. You look terrific!” on a video call? No. Probably because try as we might to look terrific on the outside, our energy is all smooshed and grayed out by the limitations of the medium.
There’s also the pressure (or requirement) to “have your camera on” during a meeting. I would be considerably more relaxed with it off and not having to witness the weird things my face and hands do when I’m talking. Because no one is looking at the camera, as you pointed out. We’re all looking at ourselves and the weird things our faces and hands do when we’re talking.
All that griping aside, I sure wouldn’t know as many cool and interesting people if Zoom wasn’t so accessible and had allowed me to have face to face conversations with them. Do I wish I could meet some of those cool and interesting people in real life? Yes and no. Disillusionment can be a real buzz kill. And pheromones are generally up to no good. 🐝😏
Oh Jordan, I completely share your feeling that Zoom calls are hell on earth. I have one condition for any gig I take now: no Zoom calls. It severely limits the work I take, but that’s totally okay with me. I’m only interested in working WITH people. My very worst Zoom call was the one where the company where I was an executive was purchased by our biggest competitor during the pandemic. Only the exec team knew that the deal was going down, but we announced the sale on a Zoom call with the whole company. Our CEO introduced the call, awkwardly said there was some big news to announce, and then let the new executive team into the meeting. It was excruciating: this acquiring company was one that many of us thought produced work that was inferior to ours, and I had often joked about their CEO being a “sun-burnished vampire,” and there they were, welcoming us into the new era. This was the moment I set my path out the door.
Man, you nailed this one. Plus, I have a mild version of a neurological condition that makes it difficult for me to keep my head completely still for long stretches of time. So on top of all the fatiigue you described, I have to spend about 25% of my brainpower concentrating on looking normal. Wears me out big time, especially if it goes on for more than an hour.
This really hits where I live. For years now, I've been too far away from people I care about most of the time and FaceTiming just is NOT the same.
I love that my 2 year old granddaughter has no trouble showing how "not the same" it is, by trying to hug the phone, or looking sad that we're not in the same physical space. She hasn't learned how to pretend it's the same. She will, soon enough, but not yet, and I love how openly her face says it all. The most deprived senses in a Zoom meetup are those of smell and touch--even just the change in the air quality that sharing physical space brings. There's also the 3D factor--seeing people fully in the space they inhabit vs the tiny little box...
These days, most of my work is remote, as I'm teaching and editing for schools in Asia. When I teach or do art for a client in a shared area, I find that I have energy for several hours--some days suck, of course, but 2-3 hours just fly by. On the other hand, 2 hours in a row is my limit online. Even then, I choose to do the classes standing up to keep my energy from flagging, and to stay enthused for kids whose attention is already prone to wander through this medium. More often than not, after taking my patient dogs for a walk following those classes, I need at least a 2 hour nap.
Despite the impression I give when in any social setting, my personality is at least half introverted--profoundly so. Too much time in the altered reality of "Zoom" contact leaves me with less ability and/or desire to interact with others in real time. Introversion starts to take over and snuff out the extroverted side.
To be clear, I agree that all of these video communicating options are fabulous, even vital, and I don't in anyway wish to see them gone. As I enter into the ironically dubbed "golden years," I absolutely love what filtered lenses do to freshen up my overall look, too!
But, when I walk up to the door of where my grandkids live my heart is full of happy anticipation. Before FaceTiming with those same kids, I feel anxious and get "performance" anxiety: "will we be able to really connect and "get each other?'" is always at the back of my mind.
I favor phone calls over Zoom whenever possible so that I can pace and talk. I find that I think much better and my energy levels improve. Zooms have their place, but shouldn't necessarily be the default.
Is it any wonder that kids at home for school over Zoom (or kids at school with teachers on Zoom) didn't work!
Hmmmmm interesting.
Love your phone analogy about taking more energy, but I don’t think I agree with VR yet (we need much more data and experience as it evolves, especially since AR helps for me)
I also don’t know if I agree with energy expenditure of people I know on zoom vs strangers. Admittedly my experience is either full time sales calls, vs business meetings/group work hours, but I 1000% preferred ppl I knew (sales is probably diff though)
Either way, I find having a routine and goals helps immensely. One danger is to roll out of bed 3 min before the first call.
Healthy food, getting sun by quickly walking outside, or honestly walking inside (I have a walking desk which helped immensely) all helped me at least
This is really interesting because I feel much less drained on a video call than I do in a room with people. I had also had it with office work in 2019 and the pandemic has allowed me to work fully remote for a few years now. I don’t like phone calls, even with friends, but video makes me feel like I’m in the room with them so I can pick up on physical cues. I do have a policy of no longer than an hour at a stretch though, if we’re doing a many-hour planning session for instance then we have 5-10 minutes away at the end of each hour. Having said that I try and ensure similar on the rare occasions I’m in a room with colleagues, chance to shut up for a bit and stand up and stretch.
Totally agree with this. Another interesting exception for me is Zoom calls where half of the participants are in-person -- I tend to treat those more like phone calls because there are 3-4 people in the room with me and 3-4 online. So I'm either watching my colleagues in the room or staring out the window, and only checking the video feed when necessary (back and forth dialogue to determine who's speaking next or if someone sounds like they're gesturing haha).
If I'm in a 1-1 Zoom meeting with someone I'm familiar with I also sometimes have a tendency to stare off into space, which does help with the fatigue. The more I pay attention to the video, the more I pay later in exhaustion.
If I thought I could get the people I can’t meet with in person (pretty much everyone I currently associate with professionally) to talk to me on the phone, I would always opt for that. But I think it carries an unfair stigma. That anyone “calling in” doesn’t have any tech chops and should probably plan on being largely excluded from the discussion because they can’t wave their hand or effectively interrupt another speaker without sounding like background noise.
Middle school nostalgia vibes aside, a phone-only call would remove an ENORMOUS wall of self-consciousness for me that I am always navigating on video calls. There’s a pressure to “look good,” which is in itself exhausting. I guess that pressure exists in real world applications, too, but it’s far easier to “read the room” with regard to the effectiveness of one’s efforts in the presentation department. This would be those missing human qualifiers. Has anyone ever uttered the words, “Great to see you again. You look terrific!” on a video call? No. Probably because try as we might to look terrific on the outside, our energy is all smooshed and grayed out by the limitations of the medium.
There’s also the pressure (or requirement) to “have your camera on” during a meeting. I would be considerably more relaxed with it off and not having to witness the weird things my face and hands do when I’m talking. Because no one is looking at the camera, as you pointed out. We’re all looking at ourselves and the weird things our faces and hands do when we’re talking.
All that griping aside, I sure wouldn’t know as many cool and interesting people if Zoom wasn’t so accessible and had allowed me to have face to face conversations with them. Do I wish I could meet some of those cool and interesting people in real life? Yes and no. Disillusionment can be a real buzz kill. And pheromones are generally up to no good. 🐝😏
Oh Jordan, I completely share your feeling that Zoom calls are hell on earth. I have one condition for any gig I take now: no Zoom calls. It severely limits the work I take, but that’s totally okay with me. I’m only interested in working WITH people. My very worst Zoom call was the one where the company where I was an executive was purchased by our biggest competitor during the pandemic. Only the exec team knew that the deal was going down, but we announced the sale on a Zoom call with the whole company. Our CEO introduced the call, awkwardly said there was some big news to announce, and then let the new executive team into the meeting. It was excruciating: this acquiring company was one that many of us thought produced work that was inferior to ours, and I had often joked about their CEO being a “sun-burnished vampire,” and there they were, welcoming us into the new era. This was the moment I set my path out the door.