Battling Zoom Fatigue – Voice of Vegas

With the pandemic causing (almost) everything to shift online, many have been faced with staring at their screen for hours. Now popularly termed as “zoom fatigue”, individuals everyday struggle with paying attention to their screens and students in particular struggle with having the motivation to study properly for their classes. Understandably, our eyes start to tire and we also tire from sitting in one place for hours on end. So how can we fight this fatigue?

First things first: let’s define what zoom fatigue actually is and why we experience it. Psychiatric Times^[^1] describes it as “the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms of communication.” There are multiple reasons for dealing with this and Harvard Business Review^[^2] outlines a few:

Video calls force us to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information
Video calls also make it much easier to lose focus (think of all the things you can do while sitting on the computer: text friends, browse websites, check emails, etc.)
Not having very ideal work environments (especially if your family is constantly around you)

And finally…

4. No visual breaks to refocus our attention (the only way to “pay attention” is to constantly stare at your camera)

So now you can see that this fatigue is VERY real and a lot of thought has been put into it. This also means that people have come up with strategies to battle zoom fatigue and these strategies are what I hope you can take away from this article. Truth be told, no one knows for sure how long we’ll remain online, so why not make the best of it?

So what are the top tips people have to offer? I searched through multiple articles and compiled a list for you:^[^3-8]

- Limiting yourself to necessary video calls (a bit challenging for students with extracurriculars)
- Having your screen off to the side rather than right in front
- Checking into others’ well being during meetings
- Between meetings: stretching, having water or some other drink, meditating, etc.
- Having compassion for yourself and others
- Having daily routines – add some variety each day!
- A digital detox! (put away your phones, tablets, laptops, etc. for a short while)
- For family/friend meetings, replacing some video calls with just phone calls (faces aren’t always necessary to socialize!)
- And above all: BE WILLING TO PUT YOURSELF FIRST

Zoom will likely be one of our most used resources in current times and we should learn how to properly incorporate it into our lives. Hopefully you’ve taken away something from this article and best of luck to everyone as we navigate this new form of communication and learning!

Image Credit: gettyimages.com

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