Feel drained after a long video call? Your tiredness could be partly linked to the background on your screen, according to a study published on Thursday which suggested trying an image depicting nature. Whether for work meetings, distance learning at school or just catching up with friends and family, video calls have become a part of daily life for many people—particularly since the COVID pandemic. The amount of time spent communicating on these screens has given rise to a new phenomenon dubbed "videoconference fatigue", which can represent physical, emotional or cognitive exhaustion.
Several factors that contribute to videoconference fatigue have already been identified, such as rising anxiety from seeing oneself on a screen, double-tasking or just plain old connection problems. Two researchers in Singapore were interested in testing another element that could play a role—the virtual background people choose to conceal what is really behind them. This could be important because existing research "suggests that during videoconferencing, users spend the vast majority of their time focusing on themselves", researcher Heng Zhang of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University told AFP.
Rather than focusing on the people they are talking to, it seems everyone just spends video calls checking themselves out. When people select their background, "they are essentially choosing a 'new suit' for themselves," said Zhang, the co-author of the new study in the journal Frontiers in P.