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Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

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Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#111

Post by Obscurity4340 »

ajmurmann wrote: post #26
hotnfresh wrote: post #7

We got accustomed to it, but it never stopped feeling super weird, I think, somewhere deep in our heads. A wall of faces staring at your neck is not what any real in-person thing feels like. A wall of facings looking in your eyes isn’t, either, for that matter, but the constantly-averted-gazes do add even more to the weirdness. You don’t feel so constantly watched in person, unless you’re doing a presentation. I did…

I always found the audio on phone calls awful. In addition, I cannot see who is on the call, there is no indicator who is speaking, no visual cues who is getting ready to step in. No ability to read the room because you cannot see anyone. It's just awful.

It really is like missing half the inputs when mirror neurons are not engaged. I mean this in a pop-sci understanding, not sure if its relevant. I do like to watch people's body language, although its the waking equivalent of lucid dreaming in the sense I have to be very deliberate in taking noticeof it to the extent I rely on it more than to tonality and diction.

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#112

Post by nunez »

deprecative wrote: post #98
nunez wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Take a long break during the day - Take short breaks throughout the day, like getting coffee/water, etc. - Turn off self view! - If you code, try to cluster your meetings together to reduce context switching. Block focus time on your calendar to avoid drive-by meetings that break up these clusters. - Invest in good headphones and a good mic. Others might have bad sound quality but you definitely won't. Also, it wil…

> - Take a long break during the day Your status goes yellow and you're fired. >- If you code, try to cluster your meetings together to reduce context switching. Block focus time on your calendar to avoid drive-by meetings that break up these clusters. If you code, you don't have enough authority to do this.

If you don't have enough authority to do either of these, I'd suggest finding an environment that provides it. Developers are hired to code, not pontificate about coding. Having no control over your "maker time" or control over breaks is burn-out waiting to happen

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#113

Post by Obscurity4340 »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #35
ajmurmann wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always found the audio on phone calls awful. In addition, I cannot see who is on the call, there is no indicator who is speaking, no visual cues who is getting ready to step in. No ability to read the room because you cannot see anyone. It's just awful.

Since one of my friend groups now resides primarily online due to general diaspora, I'd say there are adaptions that make VoIP a lot better. Right off the bat, good quality VoIP calls are vastly better than phone calls, because the compression on phones combined with typically rather shitty audio equipment creates an environment where subtle tonal queues are completely absent. Discord's audio is fantastic, but so is…

I wish people liked me enough for this to be like a regular thing I could just, like, drop in on. I hate how regimented it has to be, gotta fucking book anybody like 5 days in advance. :(

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#114

Post by agumonkey »

closeparen wrote: post #103
agumonkey wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange how I felt zero difference. As long as sound is crisp clear it feels like we're in the same room.

No matter how clear it is, the audio is half-duplex, meaning the small overlaps that are part of normal conversation control-flow instead make it crash and burn. Calls work fine for one way presentation or very structured Q&A, not so much for interactive discussion.

I .. really don't experience that, we're regularly 3 on zoom and we chat as if we were in our company offices. There are some audio issues if we really overlap too wildly but really it got to the point that seeing zoom webpage makes me smile.

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#115

Post by closeparen »

agumonkey wrote: post #114
closeparen wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter how clear it is, the audio is half-duplex, meaning the small overlaps that are part of normal conversation control-flow instead make it crash and burn. Calls work fine for one way presentation or very structured Q&A, not so much for interactive discussion.

I .. really don't experience that, we're regularly 3 on zoom and we chat as if we were in our company offices. There are some audio issues if we really overlap too wildly but really it got to the point that seeing zoom webpage makes me smile.

Are you all using headsets? I always do, but many of my colleagues just use their laptop speakers, so echo cancellation is in play.

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#116

Post by agumonkey »

closeparen wrote: post #115
agumonkey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I .. really don't experience that, we're regularly 3 on zoom and we chat as if we were in our company offices. There are some audio issues if we really overlap too wildly but really it got to the point that seeing zoom webpage makes me smile.

Are you all using headsets? I always do, but many of my colleagues just use their laptop speakers, so echo cancellation is in play.

Some times one guy will have headset, but everybody use various setups quite randomly.

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#117

Post by closeparen »

agumonkey wrote: post #116
closeparen wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you all using headsets? I always do, but many of my colleagues just use their laptop speakers, so echo cancellation is in play.

Some times one guy will have headset, but everybody use various setups quite randomly.

Which videoconferencing service is this?

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#118

Post by wkat4242 »

thunky wrote: post #108
wkat4242 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you are in VR you already will lock eyes with whomever you're looking at. Especially if your headset has eye tracking. You will not talk to someone behind you ("Soap opera talking") as it feels just as weird as in real life. Also your hands are mirrored in the virtual world and you can easily flip the bird, clap your hands and more friendly gestures too :) Or perhaps you mean the boring MS Teams avatars you c…

> Especially if your headset What I'm suggesting is that I wouldn't be wearing a headset at all, but everyone else in the meeting wouldn't realize this. My VR self (I'm calling that my avatar) would be on auto-pilot, driven only by my voice and reacting to others voices and virtual positions. Most of the time it would just need to face whoever is speaking and appear to be engaged, and throw in some random movements,…

Hmyeah but if you do that you might as well just join by call of course.

And they will notice anyway. A real avatar with full body tracking is quite emotive.

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#119

Post by Dayshine »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #90
kcb wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you really need is a proper headset with boom mic. Either USB or one with a proprietary dongle because 2-way bluetooth audio sounds terrible. I would think it's pretty common for companies to issue everyone a headset these days.

You'd be surprised. At work we get some nice-ish jabra headsets and most people wear them. But I regularly have to take calls with people from other companies, and one in particular comes to mind where some dude never ever wears a proper headset, or doesn't know how to configure it or something [0]. We can always hear the people around him going about their business. Then there's also the fact that people insist on u…

The jabra headsets seem to insist on Bluetooth when in calls, reducing the quality back down to terrible

Re: Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans

#120

Post by kcb »

Dayshine wrote: post #119
vladvasiliu wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised. At work we get some nice-ish jabra headsets and most people wear them. But I regularly have to take calls with people from other companies, and one in particular comes to mind where some dude never ever wears a proper headset, or doesn't know how to configure it or something [0]. We can always hear the people around him going about their business. Then there's also the fact that people insist on u…

The jabra headsets seem to insist on Bluetooth when in calls, reducing the quality back down to terrible

It needs to be a model with a dedicated dongle if you're going wireless. Otherwise for 2 way audio they switch to the Bluetooth phone call profile that hasn't improved for like 20 years.

I use a Sennheiser/EPOS DECT headset. I'd only recommend the Sennheiser ones for DECT because they have an ultra-wideband mode that actually sounds pretty good. Otherwise you're going to sound like a cordless phone.

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