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The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

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Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#101

Post by ubermonkey »

JohnFen wrote: post #98
ubermonkey wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My approach to this -- and I get that it comes from a position of privilege -- is that I encourage (well, almost enforce, or insist on) a bit of small-talk and socialization at the beginnings of all my meetings. I can do this because I'm almost always leading or facilitating, and quite often I meet with the same set of people several times a week for several weeks, so I get some sense of their personal lives. "How wa…

> I encourage (well, almost enforce, or insist on) a bit of small-talk and socialization at the beginnings of all my meetings. We have an executive who insists on doing this, too, and it's universally hated. You can't force small talk, and when he does, it just makes things awkward for everyone. It's even worse when he tries to force the issue by singling someone out with a small-talky question like your example "How…

I should be clear that I'm not like, putting this on the agenda.

Client workshops are usually relatively small -- say, 4 to 8 people. Training classes are bigger, but usually no more than a dozen or so because it gets unwieldy.

I make sure I open the meeting a little early, and as people trickle in I make small talk. As more people join, this grows organically. I'm typically going to be working with a given set of people for weeks or months, so it's not at all weird to have these conversations, and we absolutely would be having them if we were in person.

>It's even worse when he tries to force the issue

I am not a moron, nor am I interested in making anyone uncomfortable, so the idea that I would use this approach to try and force someone to answer a given question when they're not interested in interacting is ludicrous. This isn't how normal humans operate.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#102

Post by makeitdouble »

stripline wrote: post #93
makeitdouble wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true and also something we eventually get used to I think. I've seen the same flow happening IRL, where people new to the team expected a somewhat responsive crowd when they present, just to be met with a wall of laptop screens and inscrutable faces when the time comes. To be clear the people in the room were paying attention, and effectively cross checking info and exploring the points they wanted to focus o…

I can echo OP - have given a lot of presentations over the past year to blank screens. I used to enjoy presenting and thought it was one of my strengths, now I end every presentation with that sinking feeling like I bombed. Maybe I just need the feedback, but I also feel like I can tailor the presentation to the audience better if I pick up on body language in person. For example I may quickly gloss over a slide or s…

I feel for you. I don't know if there is a good equivalent nowadays to the feedback you got.

When it comes to low stakes, wide range presentations, an approximation I've seen was a side "reaction" channel on Slack or Discord to share random thoughts during the presentation. It gets very memey and you need an audience that is used to random chats, but there is an actual feeling of back and forth between the presenter and the audience. You'll see emojis and reaction gifs flying around when people get engaged, questions that you can scoop along the way or keep for the Q&A section afterward, etc.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#103

Post by sneak »

thecoppinger wrote: post #61
sneak wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless I’m presenting or speaking for more than an interjection, I generally turn off the sending of video. There’s little value (IMO) in 320p/720p low bitrate “facial expressions” which are just as often compression artifacts as they are information about emotional state. Maybe once video calls are routinely 1080p/2160p it will matter more, but 320p (the default for most systems today) at a low bitrate isn’t really…

> Contrariwise, when you are speaking/presenting, use an external camera (the one in your laptop/ipad/phone is optimized for thickness and thus the lens sucks) and a good soft key light. I recently did a fair bit of research into this exact setup and landed on a Logitech StreamCam and a Elgato Key Light. Well worth the money if you’re interested in achieving a high consumer grade level of quality, just be sure to pur…

I find it infuriating when things still use old, non-reversible USB. Everything I plug my Logitech 4K camera into has USB-C ports.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#104

Post by ansgri »

Fezzik wrote: post #3
hprotagonist wrote: post #2

Why — though in the early days of interlace's internetted teleputers that operated off largely the same fiber-digital grid as the phone companies, the advent of video-telephoning (a.k.a. 'videophony') enjoyed an interval of huge consumer popularity — callers thrilled at the idea of phone-interfacing both aurally and facially (the little first-generation phone-video cameras being too crude and narrow-apertured for any…

One of David Foster Wallace’s many prescient musings. It’s a snippet from Infinite Jest, for those curious. Truly a fantastic novel. Clearly I’ve read his books too often though, because even without the telltale reference to interlace I would have picked that up as his writing in a sentence or two.

I’ve only read part of the IJ once and still recognized it. Very peculiar book.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#105

Post by JohnFen »

ubermonkey wrote: post #101
JohnFen wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I encourage (well, almost enforce, or insist on) a bit of small-talk and socialization at the beginnings of all my meetings. We have an executive who insists on doing this, too, and it's universally hated. You can't force small talk, and when he does, it just makes things awkward for everyone. It's even worse when he tries to force the issue by singling someone out with a small-talky question like your example "How…

I should be clear that I'm not like, putting this on the agenda. Client workshops are usually relatively small -- say, 4 to 8 people. Training classes are bigger, but usually no more than a dozen or so because it gets unwieldy. I make sure I open the meeting a little early, and as people trickle in I make small talk. As more people join, this grows organically. I'm typically going to be working with a given set of pe…

I wasn't accusing you of doing as this exec does, honest. I was just pointing out that we have an exec (the CEO, unfortunately) who is coming from the same place as you are, but is doing it in a way that puts everyone on guard and makes meetings even more uncomfortable than they otherwise would be.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#106

Post by ubermonkey »

JohnFen wrote: post #105
ubermonkey wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should be clear that I'm not like, putting this on the agenda. Client workshops are usually relatively small -- say, 4 to 8 people. Training classes are bigger, but usually no more than a dozen or so because it gets unwieldy. I make sure I open the meeting a little early, and as people trickle in I make small talk. As more people join, this grows organically. I'm typically going to be working with a given set of pe…

I wasn't accusing you of doing as this exec does, honest. I was just pointing out that we have an exec (the CEO, unfortunately) who is coming from the same place as you are, but is doing it in a way that puts everyone on guard and makes meetings even more uncomfortable than they otherwise would be.

Ah, ok.

It's worth noting that the CEO is operating from a position that I absolutely do not have: everyone in that room works for him. I'm always an outside consultant. Nobody in the rooms I lead reports to me, so there's nothing loaded about making small talk.

I have definitely seen management, and in particular upper management, fail to realize how alienating a faux just-folks presentation can be.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#107

Post by emdubbelyou »

bamboozled wrote: post #60

One thing I find that's different is that it's harder to do simple stuff like go to the toilet on the video call. When I used to be in a physical meeting, I'd get up and leave the room if there was a lull in conversation, it signaled I had left. On a zoom call, you could go to the toilet with your headphones or whatever, but it's harder to get a gap in conversation (there's always a speaker), and I don't like to trus…

A few people on my team use virtual backgrounds that say “be right back”. You can set your background to that if you need to step away from your computer. Some add little emojis (like brewing coffee) or other things to personalize it.

Re: The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]

#108

Post by thecoppinger »

sneak wrote: post #103
thecoppinger wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Contrariwise, when you are speaking/presenting, use an external camera (the one in your laptop/ipad/phone is optimized for thickness and thus the lens sucks) and a good soft key light. I recently did a fair bit of research into this exact setup and landed on a Logitech StreamCam and a Elgato Key Light. Well worth the money if you’re interested in achieving a high consumer grade level of quality, just be sure to pur…

I find it infuriating when things still use old, non-reversible USB. Everything I plug my Logitech 4K camera into has USB-C ports.

That’s fair, but for something like a 1080 webcam used by amateur streamers, USBC seems like a poor choice. Perhaps there’s a bandwidth issue I’m missing.
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