If in the eight hours of office we had someone who follows us step by step showing us our reflection in a mirror all the time, we would report him for stalking, or at least our work performance would suffer a lot from that distraction. Yet this is what happens when we spend hours videoconferencing with colleagues on platforms such as Zoom The Teams, as is now common practice in times of Covid. So much so that a term has been coined, ‘Zoom fatigue’, in a study just published on Technology, Mind and Behavior gives Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. One more reason to join the national disconnection day announced for 5-6 March, born in California in 2009 and this year also promoted in Italy by the association SmartBreak.
“It’s not a digital detox day,” he explains Monica Bormetti, psychologist and founder of SmartBreak. “It is an opportunity to experience firsthand how much we are attached to smartphones and PCs, giving up connecting from sunset on March 5th to sunset on 6th.” And above all, the PC is the hotbed of the new plague, or the “Zoom fatigue”. “It became evident with the pandemic, when we started using video conferencing to replace all social interactions that were no longer possible in person,” he explains. Geraldine Fauville, researcher in digital technologies and collaborator of Bailenson at Stanford. “When we are videoconferencing, it seems that everyone, all the time, is watching us. In a physical meeting, on the other hand, we attract the attention of others only when we intervene. Always feeling the center of attention is stressful” explains Fauville . “Also, depending on the size of the monitor and the Zoom window, the size of the interlocutors’ faces can make them seem too close to us. While in the elevator the forced proximity to strangers leads us to look away to reduce stress, this precious negotiation between proximity and gaze is precluded on Zoom “.
Furthermore, during videoconferences we are exposed to the vision of our face for hours and hours. “It’s an unnatural situation. Studies show that the longer we see our face, the more we tend to be critical of our appearance. This triggers negative emotions and strains the brain,” says Fauville. “Here the remedy is simple: deactivate the ‘self view’: others will continue to see us, but we will not have this sort of continuous and annoying mirror”. Furthermore, on Zoom we feel compelled to remain at the center of the ‘cone’ of the webcam view: “We are trapped in a forced immobility which, in addition to stressing us, takes away creativity, as suggested by several studies” explains Fauville. “One solution is to turn off the webcam. If you can’t, it’s better to adopt a” standing desk “because following the videoconference standing up we have more freedom of movement.
The spaces of freedom most threatened by videoconferencing are those of distance learning students: “In schools, changing the time, which allows children to stretch and legs, exchange a few words and get out of the classroom for a moment is important for releasing stress. and foster attention. With distance learning these moments of transition between subjects disappear “, he explains Paola Milani, teacher of pedagogy at the University of Padua. “Fortunately, many teachers have realized this and leave a few minutes free between lessons. Or they adopt the 50 minute time”. Yet the most enthusiastic defenders of the ‘dad’ are precisely the students, but for unspeakable reasons. “With the dad they can bluff a lot more than before” explains Milani.
“Today the kids almost all have at least two devices, because they have either a computer or a tablet and a phone. If there is a check on Teams, immediately after the professor has given the theme or version, after two seconds the kids they connect with the other device on Zoom and do the verification together. Or, if they are having difficulty in an oral question, they drop the connection and find the answer online, or receive it in chat from a partner. “
A more noble disconnection is the one proposed for March 5-6: “We give three tips” explains Bormetti. “Engage in a manual activity, such as drawing or doing DIY. Because the creative use of manual skills is associated with brain areas that we underutilize when we spend many hours at the keyboard. Reading a paper book, because reading on the screen leads us to the so-called ‘ skim reading ‘, the skip from one word to another that hinders the ability to concentrate. And then focus on a single and relaxing activity, such as yoga, in order to counteract the frenetic multitasking inherent in digital “.
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