TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 31, 2021

A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are tired of living in a virtual world. The concept of “Zoom fatigue” is real and has become a well-known side effect of being constantly plugged-in to technology. Stanford University recently released the first peer-reviewed study on the psychological effects of videoconferencing and why it makes us feel so tired. Researchers identified four primary causes of fatigue and how to compensate. Causes included prolonged eye contact at a close distance, heavy cognitive load, the “all-day mirror” effect and reduced mobility. Ways to cope included reducing the size of your Zoom window by exiting full screen mode, switching to audio only for a break from video when possible, hiding your self view so only other meeting participants can see you, and taking plenty of off-camera breaks to move around. Read more about the study from Sidecar, a professional development organization for associations.