A guide to beating video con fatigue

One: ‘Zoom fatigue’ is real. 

• It is a consequence of our brain overcompensating for the lack of body cues during online interactions. 
• The lack of direct eye contact is stressful, and the current design makes a person feel like everyone is staring at them. 
• And staring at one person’s face looming large on our screen activates our ‘fight or flight’ reflex.
• Also: we are all doing more video calls to connect with each other. The result: we feel exhausted at the end of the day.

Two: Microsoft Teams is rolling out a ‘Together Mode’ that places virtual avatars of everyone in a shared virtual space—could be an auditorium or a coffee shop. Fast Company says this really, really helps, and explains why.

Three: Also coming up, an app called Mmhmm—a virtual camera that connects with any video con platform. It allows you to do a lot of super cool and useful things that transforms your room/background into a stage. Hey, you can even pretend to be a late night show host! Verge has more on the company. See fun demo below.