Are you “Zoom-ed” out?

“Zoom fatigue” is setting in for some people, according to USA Today…it’s when you’re anxious or exhausted by all the video chats you have to do and a lot of people are feeling it.

Why are video chats more stressful?

Too much eye contact  We normally don’t stare straight at each other non-stop…we tend to look away and our eyes dart around so all that eye contact is intimidating.

It requires more focus  Your brain works harder to process everything like blurry facial expressions or the tone of someone’s voice before you know who’s talking.

There aren’t as many non-verbal cues in video chats  Normal, face-to-face talks rely on a lot of body language and not having it puts us on edge.

Only one person can talk at a time  There’s no cross-talk and having to wait your turn makes us uncomfortable. Interrupting someone also creates confusion and people might not be able to hear what either of you said.

We’re worried about how we look  Staring at yourself all the time makes you more self-conscious.

Experts recommend you break up video chats so they’re not back-to-back…use the “Active Speaker” view so you only see one person instead of 20…turn off your video component so you’re not looking at yourself and maybe, just maybe…replace some of your video chats with regular old phone calls.