BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat. Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally.
Silence is another challenge. Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.
An added factor is that if we are physically on camera, we are very aware of being watched. When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful. It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.
Yet our Zoom fatigue can’t be attributed solely to that. Our current circumstances – whether lockdown, quarantine, working from home or otherwise – are also feeding in.
The video call is our reminder of the people we have lost temporarily. It is the distress that every time you see someone online, such as your colleagues, that reminds you we should really be in the workplace together. It doesn't matter whether they are introverts or extroverts. We are experiencing the same disruption of the familiar context during the pandemic.
Lack of downtime after we’ve fulfilled work and family commitments may be another factor in our tiredness, while some of us may be putting higher expectations on ourselves due to worries over the economy, furloughs and job losses.
Social distancing is not a novel concept in the natural world, where infectious diseases are commonplace. In fact, several social species will expel members within their own community if they are infected with a pathogen.
It’s challenging because infectious individuals are not always easy to see; however, through specialized senses animals can detect certain diseases—sometimes before visible symptoms appear—and change their behavior to avoid getting ill.
Bacterial diseases that strike honeybee colonies, like American foulbrood, are particularly devastating, liquifying honeybee larvae from the inside. Once identified through foul smell, the bees will physically toss diseased members from the hive.
Not all animals are so aggressive toward their ailing neighbors; sometimes it’s as simple as avoiding those who may infect you.
In an experiment, a scientist found that tadpoles could not only detect a deadly yeast infection in other tadpoles, but healthy members actively avoided those that were sick. Much like honeybees, tadpoles rely on chemical signals to determine who is sick or not.
Caribbean spiny lobsters, normally social animals, also shun diseased members of their community, well before they become contagious