WWhether it’s catching up with colleagues or gathering to set New Year’s resolutions, many of us will be reconnecting via Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet on Monday morning. But while such platforms have revolutionized flexible remote work in recent years, scientists are increasingly realizing that they can have a negative impact on people’s energy levels and self-esteem. So how can you have a healthier relationship with video conferencing in 2025?

Psychologists coined the term relatively early in the pandemic. “Zoom fatigue” Learn about the physical and psychological fatigue that can result from using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom for long periods of time. We found that people who had longer meetings using technology or who had a negative attitude toward meetings were more likely to feel: They made me even more exhausted..

Further research has found that the use of the self-view feature, which allows you to control whether your video is shown on screen during a meeting, is associated with increased fatigue levels. “We also found a gender effect, with women reporting more Zoom fatigue than men,” said Dr. Anna Carolina Queiroz, associate professor of interactive media at the University of Miami in Florida, who has been involved in these studies. says.

An insight from her the study People tend to feel more connected to others through frequent, short, and small group video calls rather than long meetings with many participants. This is likely because it takes longer to maintain nonverbal communication cues, such as eye contact, with many people. A lot of mental effort.

Those who are more sensitive to these communication cues may be more negatively affected, which may explain why women, who often feel greater pressure to present a positive image of themselves on video, tend to feel more fatigued. That could help explain things, Queiroz said.

She suggests keeping online meetings as short and small as possible and taking breaks between meetings to improve cognitive performance.

another the study This suggests that people who spend a lot of time video conferencing may become more conscious of their appearance and may be more likely to report greater dissatisfaction with it. Some people become so preoccupied with perceived flaws that they become anxious about attending gatherings and seek cosmetic surgery to change their appearance.

Dr. George Klompouzos, a professor of dermatology at Brown University and a practicing dermatologist, says, “If you’re worried about imperfections, continued exposure to images of yourself in virtual meetings tends to make those problems worse.” “There is,” he says. “Zoom dysmorphia is at least as common as body dysmorphia, which is a painful or disabling form of perceived or real defect that affects about 2% of the general population.” I’m thinking about it.

Dr. Cemre Turk, a dermatologist and postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US, says that Zoom dysmorphia is very likely to cause an increase in body dysmorphia, which can be devastating to people’s work and personal lives. It said it was important to identify it because it could have an impact. , in collaboration with Kroumpouzos. screening questionnaire It could help identify and treat more such patients.

Even if frequent video conferencing didn’t motivate people to seek facial surgery or “tweaks,” something else did. Recent research suggests It can unconsciously shape purchasing decisions in other ways.

Li Huang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of marketing at Hofstra University in New York, and his colleagues used a combination of eye tracking and surveys to determine how people liked different products after participating in different types of Zoom video calls and in-person meetings. Interest was assessed. Researchers found that video calls increased people’s anxiety about being negatively evaluated by others, whether they realized it or not, and increased their interest in self-help products in the aftermath of the call. It turns out.

Although it may sound negative, “this could actually have some positive consequences,” Huang said. “People are increasingly interested in self-improvement products, but this is not limited to body improvement products such as facial creams, but more general forms such as signing up for a LinkedIn learning course or participating in a health check-up. It also includes self-improvement.

“Most of the time, we are unaware that these types of virtual interactions are affecting our psychological well-being, and we may end up making impulse purchases online without knowing why. By learning about these findings, people can try to reduce these types of impacts.”

For example, the study found that this effect was reduced if study participants were able to turn off their webcams or use ring lights to emphasize their appearance during calls.

Switching to “Speaker View” instead of “Gallery View” and turning off “Self View” can also help, and asking participants to write about their strengths and characteristics after the call can also boost self-esteem. It was helpful.

Another factor that may help reduce the negative effects of video calls is zoom the background Selected. Dr. Heng Chan of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues assessed how tired people felt after video conferencing and found that virtual video backgrounds, such as videos of swaying palm trees or waves crashing on a beach, were associated with feelings of fatigue. I discovered that it does. There is a feeling of fatigue at the highest level, followed by a blurred background. Perhaps this is because the brain is forced to work harder by constantly reacting to new visual information, including the occasional intrusion of unblurred objects, Chan said.

People looking at static virtual backgrounds felt the least fatigued, especially if it was a nature-based image, and another study suggests it may have a calming effect. Masu.

The study didn’t assess the impact of people using real-world backgrounds, but Zhang, who uses backgrounds of trees and mountains for his video calls, said still images were still better. I think it might be better. “If you have your own office, that’s fine, but if you’re in a coffee shop or working outside, there’s a chance that people will be walking behind you or something else will happen that will distract your brain. Yes,” says Chan. “Even if you have your own office, you might be distracted by your personal belongings or worried about what others think of you.”

Huang hopes that in addition to using insights like this to help individuals protect themselves from the negative emotional impact of video conferencing, platforms will also take steps to foster a more positive user experience. I’m here. For example, instead of offering standard beauty filters, you can allow users to adjust lighting and background blur to improve their look more seriously.

“Increasing autonomy over privacy settings, such as controlling who can see and when, could also help reduce the pressure on users to always be visible to many people in meetings,” she said. I say.

Platforms could also consider leveraging artificial intelligence to detect signs of emotional distress in people’s voices and facial expressions, offering features such as discreet breaks and mindfulness exercises to help manage emotions. says Huang.