Why Video Chats are Draining

Reasons You’re Drained After Video Calls

With the current COVID pandemic, almost all of us have had to make adjustments and embrace video calls and Zoom meetings in order to continue working/classes/etc., as well as connecting with family and friends in a safe and socially-distanced way. Over time, however, many of us have experienced feelings of fatigue after so many virtual meetings/gatherings. Here are some of the reasons that feeling drained after your video calls is totally valid and normal:

• You have to work to make sure all of the technology functions correctly and will continue to do so throughout the duration of the call - including things like the camera, the microphone, the volume, and the internet connection, as well as many others! 

• Video calls can easily provoke sensory overload. Depending on your computer settings, the camera may continuously switch to the speaker on the screen, and further, multiple people talking at once can become too jumbled and overwhelming. We often also get overly focused on trying to make eye contact and appear focused/engaged at all times.

  hers’ on the call (especially if they’re personal video calls with family or friends) are often doing multiple different things or have movement in the background from kids, pets, etc. and it can be exhausting trying to focus on everything going on

Some helpful techniques in order to combat this fatigue include: utilizing your time by scheduling multiple calls on a day when you feel more energetic and social, spacing out your calls or limiting them to once a day/every other day, and asking others on the call if it’s okay to only use audio so you don’t have to worry about your appearance and demeanor on camera.

You can read the article I talk about in the episode here.