Cognitive Overload of Video-Conferences

The benefits and downfalls of our daily Zoom meetings

We’ve all had our fair share of videoconferencing experiences. Board meetings are held on Zoom, presentations are recorded through Zooms, business meetings are held through teams, and my social life consists of connections through Facebook, Discord, and… you guessed it, Zoom.

There’s no question that using videoconferencing, especially during this time of social distancing and isolation, is imperative to our society. When we don’t know what restrictions we'll have in a month, a week or even a day in the future, videoconferencing becomes our best option.

Tired of spending your days telling people, 'You're on mute!'? You aren't the only one.

 Nothing can substitute real human interaction, and unfortunately videoconferencing is still far from perfect. A key part of human communication is body language, and is used especially in the workplace to indicate feelings of discomfort, negativity, or problems, but also to provide encouragement and positive reactions to contributions.

In-person board meetings, presentations, interviews or team-building sessions benefit greatly from the subtle hints provided by body language - without them, employees and employers alike can become discouraged or unmotivated. This problem can be a huge contributing factor to what’s been dubbed ‘Zoom fatigue’, as people become burnt out because of cognitive overload. Having to work much harder to interpret non-verbal cues, says Bond University professors Libby Sander and Oliver Bauman, combined with anxiety over what we might look like, what our background might look like, what distractions we might have at home and what everybody else on the screen might be doing, can simply be too much.

Texts and emails are very easy to misinterpret, and create wholly unnecessary rifts and misunderstandings that could be solved through simply seeing the other person. This is particularly true with a generational gap - older employers and recruiters may be looking for a version of professionalism that entails perfect grammar and a serious tone, while younger candidates show their confidence and adeptness by communicating more casually and animatedly.

With this decrease in motivation, quality of work can diminish too - rather than getting ready for meetings and coming prepared, it becomes easier to roll out of bed, straight onto the computer and just hope for the best. This isn’t a symptom of laziness or bad work ethic - I know I’m guilty of waking up at 10.58am for an 11.00am meeting - but instead a product of the difficult and uncertain time we have all found ourselves in.

Technical difficulties, environment, and presentation can also be a source of great anxiety for many people, especially when there might be a job on the line. I was scrolling through LinkedIn the other day when I came across Ben Ramedani’s post, ‘I interviewed a candidate through Skype last week.’ In it, he explained that a candidate he interviewed had a messy and loud background, and came across as unprofessional. However, at the end of the interview, the candidate confessed in tears that he had lost his job and could no longer provide more than one room for his family, which is why there was so much noise and mess. The post ended with ‘life isn’t balanced’, which is an issue I think is exacerbated when we’re all interacting at home through videoconferencing.

This can be particularly difficult for recruiters - is this person disorganised, or disadvantaged? Unprofessional, or in a small living space? The even playing field given by a workplace or in-person meeting space is taken away when we are all stuck at home, wherever that may be.

There must be another way!

Of course, there are alternatives to videoconferencing. While they might not fix the problems or difficulties caused, they can provide additional mental stimulation, fun, or simply a unique experience. This is seen in the example of video games - the New York Times published an article about advertising executive Lewis Smithington using the popular video game Grand Theft Auto in place of business meetings over videoconference. He uses it as a way to be more engaging and overcome ‘Zoom fatigue’, which no doubt would be very successful.

Discord is also a very popular online platform, as it uses ‘servers’ which can have many different ‘rooms’ and functions. It can also be used for games, as users can download bots that will play music, games, give facts, or generate their own messages. While neither of these alternatives cover all the bases of having the clearest communication possible, or being exactly like in-person communication, there’s no doubt that they would be lots of fun. If not as a replacement for videoconferencing, employers should consider them as breaks from back-to-back Zoom calls or Teams meetings, to energize their teams and bring more fun into the workplace or learning environment.

Is the Zoom fatigue worth it?

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the benefits of videoconferencing, especially over other modern forms of communication. Videoconferencing is the closest thing to face-to-face we have, and is significantly better than audio calling, texts, and emails. The difficulties in interpreting body-language over videoconference are significantly increased when the ‘video’ aspect is removed.

The face-to-face aspect of videoconferencing is far from the only benefit - important board meetings being held online greatly reduce travel costs and are convenient to get to (it’s quite difficult to be late to a meeting you only need to walk five steps for!). Naturally, the argument that ‘having a meeting held at one or two o’clock in the morning is worse than travelling’ can be made, but I’d maintain that going to bed a bit late for one or two nights is exponentially better than jet-lag for only a short trip.

The ability to record meetings and share with everyone is also an advantage of videoconferencing, and is as easy as posting a link for anyone who couldn’t make it. This holds true for interviews as well - being able to watch yourself back can help improve your skills immensely.

Videoconferencing in the world today is not only becoming commonplace, but also hugely important. However, this makes it imperative to be aware of the difficulties it can present and the impact it can have for all of us, employer or employee, student or teacher, parent or child.