The downside of Zooming

Like most everyone else, I’ve participated in a few Zoom meetings, mostly with college alumni—just 20 or so of us. We took turns talking. When it was my turn, I had the sense that people were bored. The feedback (such as it was) from their expressions wasn’t encouraging. I sort of rushed through my statements. Later, I learned that the onlookers weren’t bored. It turns out that Zoom meetings make many people feel anxious and disconnected.

Because of the way video images are digitally created, they introduce all kinds of artifacts, such as blocking, freezing, blurring, jerkiness, and out-of-sync audio. While some of these disruptions might be below our conscious awareness, they confound our perception and scramble subtle social cues. Our brains strain to make sense of the disorder, which makes us feel vaguely disturbed. This is because we’re exquisitely sensitive to one another’s facial expressions, which are an intricate array of minute muscle contractions, especially around the eyes and mouth. Even though such expressions may be subconsciously perceived, they’re essential to our understanding of one another. But on pixelated video, those subtle twitches all but disappear. Or they’re frozen, smoothed over, or delayed to preserve bandwidth.

 Not only does Zoom mess with our perception, it also messes up our ability to mirror—our unconscious imitation of another person’s nonverbal signals. When the mirror neurons in our brains are activated, we have a greater connection and understanding of another person. To recognize emotion, we have to actually embody it, which makes mirroring essential to empathy and connection.

Video chats have also been shown to inhibit trust because we can’t look one another in the eye. Depending on the situation, viewers might perceive another person as uninterested (as in my situation), or shifty, haughty, servile or guilty. (Criminal justice activists have questioned the fairness of remote depositions, hearings, and trials.)

I don’t think I’d like a steady diet of Zoom meetings, but I did enjoy seeing my fellow 83-year-olds.

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