One of the unforeseen consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic was the spectacular ascent of online meetings employing videoconferencing tools such as Webex, FaceTime, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and, perhaps the best known of them all, Zoom. The number of organizations using Microsoft Teams, for instance, jumped from 50,000 in 2017 to 500,000 in 2020. By October 2020, it had 115 million daily active users. Zoom usage itself dwarfs even those skyrocketing numbers with, by one count, 300 million daily participants, 30 times what it had in December, 2019. (If Zoom were a country, it would be the fourth-most populous in the world, well ahead of Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico.) Moving online allowed the live-events industry to continue, even if it was to a constrained degree and with an ROI generally less than lucrative.

But for all of the concrete advantages of virtual meetings and exhibitions (somewhat) alleviating the industry-wide isolation and commercial wreckage imposed by shut downs, social distancing, and travel bans, videoconferencing came with an unanticipated dark side: "Zoom fatigue," defined as a "tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms of communication." The term, like Kleenex, Google, or Taser, isn't a swipe at the particular product but is instead a generic term describing the related symptoms that any videoconferencing platform can cause.

Jeremy Bailenson, the director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, took note of this extensive exhaustion early on in the pandemic when people turned to Zoom and other similar communication tools. While readily acknowledging Zoom is "a great videoconferencing product," Bailenson also notes that videoconferencing for long stretches of time can be especially exhausting. In February, he published a paper, "Nonverbal overload: A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue" that recognized the exhaustion was due to more than just excessive eyestrain from staring at a screen during endless webinars, or staying sedentary at repeated virtual events. It was, in fact, produced by the diametrical, even profound, differences between virtual and live meetings, a dissimilarity embodied in our physical, psychological, and even neurological response to interacting with other humans on video conferences for extended periods. While that underscores the primacy and irreplaceable importance of face-to-face meetings for the live-events industry, it doesn't change the need to address this condition and understand it why it affects us. Here in an EXHIBITOR interview, Bailenson outlines the signs of Zoom fatigue, including how it disturbs communication patterns we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, and how we can work around it. For the live-events industry, understanding this phenomenon is vital because videoconferencing, by itself and as a part of virtual and hybrid events, is going to be an inescapable part of the much-heralded "new normal" for events and exhibitions.

EXHIBITOR Magazine: What are the basic signs of Zoom fatigue? Are there any surprising symptoms?
Jeremy Bailenson: Zoom fatigue can be broken down into several types of lethargy and exhaustion. In our research, we collected responses from individuals on five fatigue-related components: general, visual, social, motivation, and emotional. We asked several questions in each category, because these symptoms manifest themselves in different ways. The sorts of questions we asked respondents should give you some idea of the many indicators of Zoom fatigue. To give a few examples, one of the questions we asked to ascertain general fatigue was "How mentally drained do you feel after video conferencing?" while one we used to determine visual fatigue was, "How blurred does your vision get after video conferencing?" Among the questions for social fatigue, though, we inquired "How much do you need time by yourself after video conferencing?" while for emotional fatigue we queried "How emotionally drained do you feel after video conferencing?" and "How irritable do you feel after video conferencing?"

EM: Some causes, I'd assume, lie in the basic – if sometimes overlooked – differences between meeting virtually online and meeting physically offline. What's missing from online meetings that we may not even be aware of in person?
JB: Currently, the medium of videoconferencing is actually designed to create various forms of exhaustion and fatigue – socially, emotionally, and physically. In the paper, "Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue," my colleagues and I examine in detail four chief causes: excessive eye gaze, seeing yourself reflected back to you for many hours a day, being tethered to one physical location for extended periods of time, and increased difficulty in interpreting nonverbal cues.

For example, unlike in the real world, in virtual meetings the default is to see yourself. In the real world, if somebody was following you around with a mirror constantly – so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting feedback – you were seeing your reflection every second, that would just be crazy. No one would ever consider that. It's taxing on us. It's stressful. And there's lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror.

EM: Can you elaborate a bit on "excessive eye gaze" and "increased difficulty in interpreting nonverbal cues." Why would those tire you out?
JB: On Zoom, behavior ordinarily reserved for close relationships–such as long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up–has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, coworkers, and even strangers. Anyone who speaks for a living understands the intensity of being stared at for hours at a time. Even when speakers see virtual faces instead of real ones, research has shown that being stared at while speaking causes physiological arousal. But Zoom's interface design constantly beams faces to everyone, regardless of who is speaking. From a perceptual standpoint, Zoom effectively transforms listeners into speakers and smothers everyone with eye gaze. Think of it this way: In real life, whenever someone's face is that close to ours, our brains interpret it as an intense situation that is either going to lead to mating or to fighting.

EM: One of the occasional drawbacks of meeting online is when there's an audio delay, or someone's mic goes down, or the video is jerky. Does this have any kind of effect on viewers?
JB: Yes, latency adds cognitive load, which is a finding from a very early study by Pamela Hinds in 1999. Put simply, cognitive load to having to think purposely and consciously. So, in a face-to-face meeting you are sitting, talking, and listening without having to work at it. In videoconferencing though, you're starting up your Zoom or Webex software, fiddling with your microphone and webcam, playing with your speakers' volume. Consequently, your ability to work on autopilot the way you would at an in-person meeting goes way down and your stress level climbs way up.

EM: What are generally considered to be the most effective ways to combat or at least mitigate Zoom fatigue?
JB: There are at least five steps people can take right now to help combat fatigue. First, right click your self-video and select "hide self view." It will take you a few times to get used to it – we have all gotten accustomed to the real-time nonverbal feedback we get from having our picture available to all – but you will feel better over time. Remember that bosses get to choose how often they want to Zoom versus just calling, and they can also control whether or not video is on or off. Employees don't have the same luxury, and often are forced to spend more time in the spotlight. As a manager, I didn't realize this until my colleagues made it clear to me.

If you can't turn off your self-view, my best advice in that situation is to shrink the Zoom screen. Instead of having it take up the entire screen, minimize it to about one-third of the screen. Then, the faces no longer seem huge when they stare at you, minimizing some of the deleterious aspects of videoconferencing. In that same vein, if you're on a videoconference where seeing faces is not essential or obligatory, make audio-only the default setting.

Two other ways to reduce Zoom fatigue is to place an external webcam farther away from the screen, which would allow you to pace and doodle in virtual meetings just like we do in real ones, yet still be clearly visible to others. (Such behavior would look odd to others if the webcam were in its usual close-up position.) Additionally, you could use an external keyboard (wired or wireless) that would allow you to sit further away from the screen. Both of these tactics permit you to increase the personal space bubble between yourself and the screen, which is typically too small and can make you feel confined.

EM: Do you think videoconferencing is affecting how we communicate offline?
JB: One of the things I worry about is that the medium is changing the way we communicate. Think about the exaggerated nods and the holding one's thumb up. How long until those become tools we use in everyday, face-to-face interaction?