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It’s been just about 500 days since we dragged our monitor home, fiddled with the USB-Cs and HDMIs and began the work-from-home experience. While we’ve drifted in and out of lockdown, the video call has become a daily exercise for the modern worker. From the morning stand up-to million-dollar negotiations, is it the best way to do business?

Why has video overtaken voice and text communication seemingly instantly? Sure, innovations like Zoom and Google Meet help, but studies have shown that video comms aren’t necessarily the best option. Despite mass adoption, video communication not only leads to fatigue but can degrade our ability to make effective business decisions.

Research from Yale suggests video “adds cognitive load” which shifts our attention to recognising facial expression and interpreting body language rather than understanding the verbal message being delivered.

Moreover, voice-only calls enhance our ability to read emotions. Across 5 different experiments, researchers found voice-only communication increased empathetic accuracy compared to video comms. On a real, even if anecdotal basis, it is far more efficient too. A phone call will last 2 minutes whereas a video call stretches for half an hour with a scheduled meeting time and agenda.

There’s more. Zoom Fatigue is a real concept. The hours on end staring at a face in the screen has proper impacts on our interactions. It’s primarily unnatural. Normal conversation allows for diversion, the ability to opt away from direct eye contact, make a note, use your hands. Video calls require almost full-time eye contact, which is proven to exhaust participants. Extended periods of magnified face-to-face contact can lead to a “hyper-aroused state” as explained by Stanford’s research team. In the real world, staring a colleague in the eyes so intensely signifies conflict.

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