Vienna, Austria: Video calls via Zoom effectively replaced face-to-face communication in the early days of the pandemic, and many companies haven’t looked back since. This led to the coining of the term ‘zoom exhaustion’, which refers to the feeling of fatigue after being on video calls for long periods of time.
A study published in the journal Scientific Reports, citing the experience of scanning the brain and heart activity of 35 students at the Graz University of Technology in Austria, found that the term zoom excitation is not just a feeling. Rather, it has become a medical problem.
Electrodes were placed on the children’s heads and chests. Half of the students attended a 50-minute lecture via video conference, while the rest attended the conference in person. The researchers also used electroencephalograms (EEG) and electrocardiograms (ECG) to record the electrical activity in the students’ brains as well as their heartbeats.
The results revealed that those who participated in the video conference had higher levels of fatigue and the participants’ minds struggled to concentrate. They also felt drowsy, while students who attended in person reported being happier and more energized during lectures.
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