Zoom Fatigue: Experts Explain Why It's Worse for Women

Have you ever logged off a Zoom chat and felt like you needed to sleep for a million years? You're not the only one who feels this way. Zoom fatigue is now a recognized disease, and a recent analysis has discovered that it affects women rather than men.

The research, titled "Nonverbal Mechanisms Predict Zoom Fatigue and Explain Why Women Experience Higher Levels than Men," is currently available as a preprint for peer review.

Rural Parents Struggle With Internet Infrastructure As They Home School Children During Coronavirus Lockdown — TARPOLY CREEK, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 05: Alessia Bowman, 10, Sybella Bowman, 12, and Oliver Bowman, 8, do school work at their family home and cattle property on April 05, 2020 in Tarpoly Creek, Australia. Emily Bowman, mother of three, believes the current internet situation highlights "the great divide between city and country." She is currently paying $400 per month for a recently expanded package and considering hiring a space in Tamworth (100 km away from her home) so she can access better internet to home school her children. " Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Why is Zoom Fatigue Worse Among Women?

In a survey of 10,591 participants, one in 20 men said they felt "very" to "very" zapped after a Zoom call. In contrast, one in seven women said they felt "very" to "extremely" zapped after a Zoom call.

According to a study conducted by the University of Gothenburg and Stanford University, women often have longer meetings and shorter intervals between them than men.

Owing to what social scientists call "self-focused attention," which is fueled by the mirror vision of Zoom sessions, women were more likely to experience Zoom fatigue.

Women are more likely to feel self-conscious at Zoom meetings as they examine their image due to this "mirror anxiety."

The researchers asked the following questions to the participants:

During a video conference, how concerned do you feel about seeing yourself?; and
During a video conference, how distracting is it to see yourself?

Women were more adversely impacted by their mirror screens than men. They were, however, more likely to feel "trapped" by the need to remain inside the camera's vision.

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Zoom Fatigue Also Common Among Youth, Non-White People

Zoom fatigue was also more common in younger people than it was in older people. It's was also more common in "non-white" people, who the researchers characterized as needing "urgent research attention."

Another research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that women were more likely to focus on themselves when they looked in the mirror or at Zoom meetings. The said study, titled "Self-Focused Attention, Gender, Gender Role, and Vulnerability to Negative Affect," claimed there was an increase in self-awareness among women as a result.

"As the world transitions to the post-pandemic era, in which the future of work is likely to be hybrid, it will be important to maximize the benefits of video conferencing while reducing the psychological costs, especially given that these costs are born unequally across society," the Guthenberg and Stanford researchers said in their paper.

More research is needed, they said, to look into the effects of Zoom fatigue and how to better organize Zoom meetings to prevent the negative effects.

"Several researchers have already pointed at the disproportionate negative impact of COVID on women such as greater economic hardships, heavier childcare load than men, and also increased struggles with body image. In this way, our findings add to the body of knowledge showing the disproportionate negative impact of the COVID pandemic on women."