The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

Post by mark_l_watson » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

awild wrote: post #69

piva00 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rude? Have you considered the other side? I'm extremely fatigued by having the camera on, I feel surveilled and every movement I do in front of it is calculated by my unconscious mind. It takes a real toll on my productivity having to have the camera on for a string of meetings. I feel it's extremely rude to dismiss others' experiences with the damn camera on for a virtual meeting. What is up that you need someone el…

Is this because you observe yourself on screen? I feel very uneasy looking at myself when talking, so I've figured out how to remove my tile and it's suddenly like a normal conversation. There are way less social codes you have to follow when wfh and people tend to not bother as much with enforcing them.

Post by golemotron » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

charcircuit wrote: post #148

Lutger wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perceived the need to keep the camera off during a meeting is a good indication there is something wrong with the meeting, not that it's a good thing to keep the camera off. We had some recurring meetings where people consistently didn't show up. The managers first impulse was to make the meeting mandatory. But the first thought should be: why are people not showing up? Engineers hate being unproductive, it shoul…

Coming from the the game modding scene meetings never have webcams. It's always just voice calls. Using a video camera is such a foreign idea to me. I don't even own a web camera for my PC. Another weird thing to me is people using other's real names. It's just taboo to use people's real names instead of their screen names. Even my boss and the owners of the company I refer to by their screen name.

Post by BobbyJo » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #169

lucumo wrote: post #25

> following a day of virtual meetings I've done full days of real meetings. Those were exhausting and very draining. I'm surprised that anybody would expect anything different from virtual meetings. I have noticed that it's harder to feel people as fully human when they're little 2D movies. Even moreso when they're disembodied voices. It's less so when I've met the people IRL. I'm guessing I can then link their image…

> In my experience, there's also far less participation when everybody has their camera off. I feel this is a blessing in most cases. Remembering in-person meetings, half of the “participation” was asking to get back one slide before to check a point that went too fast, questions on points that are dealt with two slides further, people getting asked questions as a punishment for being visibly bored to death, and fact…

Post by b3morales » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

lucumo wrote: post #105

piva00 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rude? Have you considered the other side? I'm extremely fatigued by having the camera on, I feel surveilled and every movement I do in front of it is calculated by my unconscious mind. It takes a real toll on my productivity having to have the camera on for a string of meetings. I feel it's extremely rude to dismiss others' experiences with the damn camera on for a virtual meeting. What is up that you need someone el…

> What is up that you need someone else to have a camera pointing to their face that you can't have with their voices? Smiles, frowns, nods, glazed looks, puzzled looks, surprised looks, I-want-to-say-something-but-I-can't-get-a-word-in looks, zoning out, impatience, et cetera, et cetera. There's really a lot people communicate with their faces, both consciously and unconsciously.

Post by mkl » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

piva00 wrote: post #173

mkl wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't understand, as the parallel seems obvious; you're meeting with a group of people and you can see them and they can see you. If anything I feel freer with the camera, as others' visibility of me is much more limited than in person. I like cameras in meetings for exactly what you say, reading others' faces, attention, body language, non-verbal cues, etc. Without being able to see people I find it much har…

When I'm meeting in person I can move around, I can look at whoever is the center of attention at the moment without having to care if someone is watching me, it's much more easy to tell if you are being watched or not and when to relax or not. The parallel does not work, I don't think it's that hard to realise that a camera pointing at your face, showing how you look at any given moment to anyone that looks at you a…