Zoom fatigue is real

 The following is from the tomorrows-professor mailing list.

Prompted by the recent boom in videoconferencing, communication Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab <https://vhil.stanford.edu/ > (VHIL), examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on these platforms.

Just as “Googling” is something akin to any web search, the term “Zooming” has become ubiquitous and a generic verb to replace videoconferencing. Virtual meetings have skyrocketed, with hundreds of millions happening daily, as social distancing protocols have kept people apart physically. In the first peer-reviewed article that systematically deconstructs Zoom fatigue from a psychological perspective, published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior <https://tmb.apaopen.o rg/pub/nonverbal-overload/> on Feb. 23, Bailenson has taken the medium apart and assessed Zoom on its individual technical aspects.

He has identified four consequences of prolonged video chats that he says contribute to the feeling commonly known as “Zoom fatigue”. Bailenson stressed that his goal is not to vilify any videoconferencing platform he appreciates and uses tools like Zoom regularly but to highlight how current implementations of videoconferencing technologies are exhausting and to suggest interface changes, many of which are simple to implement.

Moreover, he provides suggestions for consumers and organizations on how to leverage the current features on videoconferences to decrease fatigue. Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote communication, but just think about the medium just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to, Bailenson said. Below are four primary reasons why video chats fatigue humans, according to the study.

Four reasons why video chats fatigue humans:

1) Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact are highly intense.

Both the amount of eye contact we engage in on video chats, as well as the size of faces on screens is unnatural. In a normal meeting, people will variously be looking at the speaker, taking notes or looking elsewhere. But on Zoom calls, everyone is looking at everyone, all the time. A listener is treated nonverbally like a speaker, so even if you don t speak once in a meeting, you are still looking at faces staring at you. The amount of eye contact is dramatically increased.

a. Social anxiety of public speaking is one of the biggest phobias that exist in our population, Bailenson said. When you’re standing up there and everybody’s staring at you, that’s a stressful experience.

b. Another source of stress is that depending on your monitor size and whether you’re using an external monitor, faces on videoconferencing calls can appear too large for comfort. In general, for most setups, if it’s a one-on-one conversation when you’re with coworkers or even strangers on video, you’re seeing their face at a size that simulates a personal space that you normally experience when you’re with somebody intimately, Bailenson said. When someone s face is that close to ours in real life, our brains interpret it as an intense situation that is either going to lead to mating or to conflict. What s happening, in effect, when you’re using Zoom for many, many hours is you’re in this hyper-aroused state, Bailenson said.

c. Solution: Until the platforms change their interface, Bailenson recommends taking Zoom out of the full-screen option and reducing the size of the Zoom window relative to the monitor to minimize face size, and to use an external keyboard to allow an increase in the personal space bubble between oneself and the grid.

2) Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing. Most video platforms show a square of what you look like on camera during a chat. But that s unnatural, Bailenson said. In the real world, if somebody were following you around with a mirror constantly so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting the feedback you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would just be crazy.

a. No one would ever consider that, he added. Bailenson cited studies showing that when you see a reflection of yourself, you are more critical of yourself. Many of us are now seeing ourselves on video chats for many hours every day. It’s taxing on us. It’s stressful. And there’s lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror.

Solution: Bailenson recommends that platforms change the default practice of beaming the video to both self and others when it only needs to be sent to others. In the meantime, users should use the hide self-view button, which one can access by right-clicking their own photo, once they see their face is framed properly in the video.

3) Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.

In-person and audio phone conversations allow humans to walk around and move. But with videoconferencing, most cameras have a set field of view, meaning a person has to generally stay in the same spot. Movement is limited in ways that are not natural. There’s growing research now that says when people are moving, they’re performing better cognitively, Bailenson said.

Solution: Bailenson recommends people think more about the room they’re videoconferencing in, where the camera is positioned and whether things like an external keyboard can help create distance or flexibility.

For example, an external camera farther away from the screen will allow you to pace and doodle in virtual meetings just like we do in real ones. And of course, turning one’s video off periodically during meetings is a good ground rule to set for groups, just to give oneself a brief nonverbal rest.

4) The cognitive load is much higher in video chats. Bailenson notes that in regular face-to-face interaction, nonverbal communication is quite natural and each of us naturally makes and interprets gestures and nonverbal cues subconsciously.

a. But in video chats, we must work harder to send and receive signals. In effect, Bailenson said, humans have taken one of the most natural things in the world an in-person conversation and transformed it into something that involves a lot of thought: You’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video.

b. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories to communicate.

c. Gestures could also mean different things in a video meeting context. A sidelong glance to someone during an in-person meeting means something very different than a person on a video chat grid looking off-screen to their child who just walked into their home office.

Solution: During long stretches of meetings, give yourself an audio-only break. This is not simply you turning off your camera to take a break from having to be nonverbally active, but also turning your body away from the screen, Bailenson said, so that for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless.

We have to evolve ways to make it work for us. We're in that era now with video conferencing, and understanding the mechanisms will help us understand the optimal way to do things for different settings, different organizations, and different kinds of meetings. If you are interested in measuring your own Zoom fatigue, you can take the survey here<https://comm.stanford.edu /ZEF> and participate in the research project.

Social Isolation of Seniors Part 2

Social isolation is: “less social contact than someone wishes, causing loneliness or other emotional distress” In “normal” ageing, a senior’s social circle may grow smaller due to:

•         Illness or disability

•         Loss of spouse or friends – more than 6% of Canadians over the age of 65 reported not having any friends

•         Caregiver responsibilities

•         Poverty

•         Lack of personal hygiene

However, senior isolation is serious. 

1.     Senior isolation increases the risk of mortality. According to a 2012 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, both social isolation and loneliness are associated with a higher risk of mortality in adults aged 52 and older.

2.     Feelings of loneliness can negatively affect both physical and mental health. Regardless of the facts of a person’s isolation, seniors who feel lonely and isolated are more likely to report also having poor physical and/or mental health, as reported in a 2009 study using data from the National Social Life.

3.     Perceived loneliness contributes to cognitive decline and risk of dementia. We evolved to be a social species it’s hard-wired into our brains, and when we don’t meet that need, it can have physical and neurological effects.

4.     Social isolation makes seniors more vulnerable to elder abuse.  Many studies show a connection between social isolation and higher rates of elder abuse, reports the National Center on Elder Abuse. Whether this is because isolated adults are more likely to fall victim to abuse, or a result of abusers attempting to isolate the elders from others to minimise the risk of discovery, researchers aren’t certain.

5.     LGBT seniors are much more likely to be socially isolated. LGBT seniors are twice as likely to live alone, according to SAGE (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders); they are more likely to be single and they are less likely to have children and they are more likely to be estranged from their biological families.

6.     Social isolation in seniors is linked to long-term illness. In the PNAS study mentioned above, illnesses and conditions such as chronic lung disease, arthritis, impaired mobility, and depression were associated with social isolation.

7.     Loneliness in seniors is a major risk factor for depression. Numerous studies over the past decade have shown that feeling loneliness is associated with more depressive symptoms in both middle-aged and older adults

8.     Loneliness causes high blood pressure. A 2010 study in Psychology and Aging indicated a direct relationship between loneliness in older adults and increases in systolic blood pressure over a 4-year period. These increases were independent of race, ethnicity, gender, and other possible contributing factors.

9.     Socially isolated seniors are more pessimistic about the future. According to the National Council on Aging, socially isolated seniors are more likely to predict their quality of life will get worse over the next 5-10 years, are more concerned about needing help from community programs as they get older, and are more likely to express concerns about ageing in place.

10. Physical and geographic isolation often leads to social isolation. “One in six seniors living alone in the United States faces physical, cultural, and/or geographical barriers that isolate them from their peers and communities,” reports the National Council on Aging. “This isolation can prevent them from receiving benefits and services that can improve their economic security and their ability to live healthy, independent lives.”

11. Isolated seniors are more likely to need long-term care. Loneliness and social isolation are major predictors of seniors utilizing home care, as well as entering nursing homes, according to a 2004 report from the Children’s, Women’s and Seniors Health Branch, British Columbia Ministry of Health.

12. Loss of a spouse is a major risk factor for loneliness and isolation. Losing a spouse, an event which becomes more common as people enter older age, has been shown by numerous studies to increase seniors’ vulnerability to emotional and social isolation, says the same report from the British Columbia Ministry of Health. Besides the loneliness brought on by bereavement, the loss of a partner may also mean the loss of social interactions that were facilitated by being part of a couple.

13. Transportation challenges can lead to social isolation. According to the AARP, “life expectancy exceeds safe driving expectancy after age 70 by about six years for men and 10 years for women.” Yet, 41% of seniors do not feel that the transportation support in their community is adequate, says the NCOA.

14. Caregivers of the elderly are also at risk for social isolation. Being a family caregiver is an enormous responsibility, whether you are caring for a parent, spouse, or another relative. When that person has Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or a physical impairment, the caregiver may feel even less able to set aside his or her caregiving duties to attend to social relationships they previously enjoyed. This can trigger loneliness and depression.

15. Loneliness can be contagious. Studies have found that loneliness has a tendency to spread from person to person, due to negative social interactions and other factors. In other words, when one person is lonely, that loneliness is more likely to spread to friends or contacts of the lonely individual. Making things even worse, people have a tendency to further isolate people who are lonely.

16. Lonely people are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviour. A 2011 study using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) found that people who are socially isolated or lonely are also more likely to report risky health behaviours such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, and smoking.

17. Volunteering can reduce social isolation and loneliness in seniors. We all know that volunteering is a rewarding activity, and seniors have a unique skill set and oodles of life experience to contribute to their communities. It can also boost longevity and contribute to mental health and wellbeing, and it ensures that seniors have a source of social connection.

18. Feeling isolated? Take a class. A review of studies looking at various types of interventions on senior loneliness found that the most effective programs for combating isolation had an educational or training component: for instance, classes on health-related topics, computer training, or exercise classes.

19. Technology can help senior isolation – but not always. Even though modern technology provides us with more opportunities than ever for keeping in touch, sometimes the result is that we feel lonelier than ever. The key to finding technological interventions that really do help, says Health Quality Ontario, is matching those interventions to the specific needs of individual seniors.

20. Physical activity reduces senior isolation. Group exercise programs, it turns out, are a wonderfully effective way to reduce isolation and loneliness in seniors and of course, they have the added benefit of being great for physical and mental health. In one study, discussed by Health Quality Ontario, seniors reported greater well-being regardless of whether the activity was aerobic or lower impact, like stretching.

 

Senior isolation is neither inevitable nor irreversible. Getting the facts can help us prevent loneliness in our senior loved ones as they face the life changes of ageing.

Please Help (Social media words that work)

 I am not a big fan of Twitter but I know many people who read this blog are fans and many are progressives. One of the biggest issues facing social activists and social progressives  is the ability to get the message out and to have the message spread. One of the best ways to do this is through social media sites such as Twitter, so I thought this post by Dan Zerella at his site DanZarrella.com would be of interest to those of you who want to spread your message.

I’m a big fan of social calls-to-action. Previously, I’ve found evidence that they work on Facebook and Twitter. So I wanted to expand my research and see if I could find more words and phrases that were good at spurring people to social action.

Using a huge data set of more than 2.7 million Tweets provided to me by the awesome folks at Buffer, I analyzed the use of calls-to-action (like “please retweet”) and their relationship to retweets. To control for number of followers, I used a retweets-per-follower ratio.

I found that there are 7 words and phrases that when included in a tweet are correlated with that tweet getting more retweets than those that did not include those words. The expected CTAs are on the list: “please retweet” and “please rt” but leading up the list is the somewhat surprising “please help.”

For more social media data like this, order Dan's latest book “The Science of Marketing” now!

Importance of Friendship

This is a follow-up on an earlier post on the value and importance of having good friends

Good friends contribute to your health and well-being. By Madeline Vann, MPH Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH

Friends and Well-Being

A number of studies have highlighted the importance of friends and good relationships to health, Here are some of the findings:

Studies show that socially engaged adults’ age more successfully than adults who are not as socially engaged. According to surveys of women over age 60, those who are socially engaged and visit with friends and family throughout the week are happier as they age.

Friends can help you achieve your weight and fitness goals. Encouragement and just sharing goes a long way to boosting your willpower. Happiness is catching. If you have a friend you consider to be happy, you are more likely to be happy and you are able to spread that happiness to the people around you.

A study of 4,739 adults who participated in the Framingham Heart Study between 1983 and 2003 showed that people tend to cluster into happy or unhappy groups, and happiness appears to spread not just to those immediately inside the social group, but to their contacts as well. Having happy friends who live less than a mile away was an especially powerful predictor of happiness. Building a circle of friends makes you happy. People who see themselves as a leader in their social circle are happier than those who see themselves as outsiders — another reason why actively building relationships instead of waiting for the phone to ring is important.

Friends lessen grief. A series of interviews with parents who lost a baby during pregnancy or immediately after birth showed that those who felt they were receiving social support from friends or family were better able to cope with their grief. The most welcome forms of support were simply being physically present, listening, and offering sympathy, encouragement, and practical help, such as making meals or funeral arrangements. In contrast, feeling socially alone tends to worsen grief.

Being social boosts your immune system. Being socially engaged leads to more positive emotions, which in turn may actually boost your body’s immune system and reduce the physical signs of stress, say health experts. The Friends You Choose Make a Difference

While it is possible for one happy person to spread happiness to their friends, the reverse is also true — a mildly or chronically depressed friend can bring you down as well. It helps to have a diverse group of friends to lessen this impact.

It's also important to be a good friend yourself, providing others with as many of the benefits of friendship (infectious happiness, social support, someone to confide in, food in times of crisis) as you can. It feels good to help others, and that only adds to your own happiness.

Facebook facelift faces tough fight

The following was posted by  Priyanka Joshi / Mumbai on Sep 26, 2011

Last week, 29-year-old K Dasaratha Rao, a website developer and software consultant from Bangalore, saw several new features being added to the social networking site Facebook

 “Honestly, I didn’t take to the changes immediately. But as I spent time on the site and saw what Facebook had done, I realised that it had actually simplified the number of clicks I would make on the home page.”

What made sense for Rao is that the new FB interface automatically grouped his over 450 friends in convenient lists, made it easier for him to see the popular FB updates by close friends as top stories and even added a button that allowed him to subscribe to international web developers, who do not know him but can share insights on technology.

But Rao’s enthusiasm seems to be an exception when you hear avid Facebook users like New Delhi-based beauty and wellness consultant Ritika Sharma, 27. “What was wrong with the old Facebook that it is now being constantly redesigned. The new features make my FB page too complicated,” she says.

Her colleague, Bhawna Misao, a receptionist, too had similar views. “Since online Facebook has changed so much, I have started using the Facebook app on my BlackBerry, which is still a reflection of the old interface.”

 New features on FB have also failed to impress 20-year-old Miranda House student, Rachna Punjabi who sys: “Recent features like Facebook’s real-time “ticker” stream that alerts me about what my friends read, watch and listen to or tag, is dizzying real time and way too much social sharing.” This also prompted Punjabi to tweak her FB settings that allowed limited sharing of what she does on the social networking portal.

With nearly 36 million users from India (according to September statistics from Socialbakers), Facebook was accessed by more than 45 per cent of India’s internet users. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, should be closely listening to Indian users because the site witnessed a heady growth of about 27 per cent in the last three months, adding over seven milion users.

And FB is not done with the changes yet. At last week’s f8, Facebook’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, Zuckerberg announced the company’s intent to overhaul the profile page on FB for a new feature called Timeline and revealed plans to encourage people to use Facebook as a media-consumption platform.

Sam Lessin, a product manager at Facebook wrote in an official blog: “The way your profile works today, 99 per cent of the stories you share vanish. The only way to find the posts that matter is to click ‘Older Posts’ at the bottom of the page. Again. And again.” With Timeline, FB will curate a home for all stories users share, will be wider than the existing profile, and a lot more visual.

Part of FB’s hurry to evolve as the social network for the masses across the globe is partly due to the heat it is facing from the three-month-old social network site, Google Plus. The new kid on the block from Google’s stable aims to take some of Facebook’s shine off with its own set of social features and forthcoming integration with the search giant’s various online products expected to be launched.

For now, however, it looks like Facebook still enjoys the users’ confidence. According to Informate Mobile Intelligence, Facebook has outpaced Google Plus in terms of share of page views. While share of page views for Google.com declined by 36 per cent over the last six months, the share of Facebook.com saw an increase of 68 per cent.

Users, like Vinit Udeshi, a music jockey in Kolkata, hailed Facebook for launching a standalone messaging and chat app for iPhone and Android devices. “This app allows you to send text messages to anyone in your phone’s contact list as well as your Facebook friends. You can see the messages from the Messenger app as well as your web-based version of Facebook.” The site has also introduced a free 90-day access on mobile devices as part of its tie-ups with telecom operators, including Reliance, Aircel and Airtel in India.

Today, Facebook India is hoarded with over 17 million users in the age group of 18-24 years, followed by the users in the age of 25-34, reveals Socialbakers’ data. Now, Google Plus too is targeting the same user group.

WHAT’S NEW 0N FACEBOOK

The site has overhauled its page design. The new “Top Stories” feature shows a mix of the most popular news stories, according to Facebook’s algorithm, along with the most current status updates. The news feed is meant to act like a user’s social newspaper.

With images being an integral part of most social-networking activity, Facebook will soon roll out “Timeline” that will be best described as a visual representation of your entire life as shared on Facebook. Timeline will allow users to scroll through maps of where you’ve been, pictures, comments, apps, activities shared and so on. Facebook intends to allow users to curate “the story of who you are,” highlighting important photos, events, apps and more

News apps like Digg, Guardian, Yahoo, Wetpaint and The Economist, among others will be available

There will be several music, radio and video-sharing applications on facebook but whether users can stream in India remains to be seen

Friend Lists were revamped making it easier to segment people in lists and a new Smart Lists feature that automatically categorises connections based on common interests, locations and place of work

Facebook has also started grouping status updates about similar topics

For users who have been using the site for a while, it will now show your old status updates from the same day as you browse photo albums

Social media experts like Hareesh Tibrewala, joint CEO, Social Wavelength, says: “Google Plus is still too much in the nascent stage but Google has the power of its search and email. It should be able to grow about 50 per cent or so in the next 12 months.” Google Plus already has over three million users from India although it’s not exactly a happy user base.

WHAT’S NEW 0N GOOGLE PLUS

Hangouts On Air is a feature that lets users broadcast and record their sessions. When a user is “on air,” up to nine others can join the Hangout session and anyone (even those not in the user’s network) can tune in to the live broadcast. To encourage additional information-sharing via Hangouts, Google has added screen-sharing, sketchpad for group doodlingand the ability to create Google Docs from Hangouts. These features can be accessed by clicking the “Try Hangouts with extras” button on your Google Plus page

Google Plus on Android devices will support Hangout video-chats. For starters, users must have a front-facing camera that has Android 2.3 Gingerbread or a higher version

 Google will allow app developers to build applications on the new Hangouts platform

Google Plus mobile app includes better SMS support, allowing users in the US and India to post messages on Google Plus, receive notifications and respond to group messages. Indian users need to get their phone numbers verified on Google Plus and then can send texts to 9222222222 to share information on the move

 A direct challenge to Facebook’s game ecosystem, Google Plus launched its own game apps

Users who use Google Books canshare their books on Google Plus, adding a social experience into the Google Books project

Saurabh Rathore, partner at Moe’s Art, says: “Google Plus interface is boring and Facebook is trying to get more and more complicated. Twitter seems to be the best bet for me. It’s a place where I can control whom I want to follow.”

However, he quickly adds that Facebook still gets a higher rating than Google Plus “because it’s an older platform hence more friends and more conversations. Plus has graveyard-at-midnight kind of silence. When I am happy, I’m on Facebook, when I have to rant, I go to Twitter. Google Plus is my fifth option, after Linkedin and Foursquare.”

Google is listening. Its social search is now integrating Google Plus posts into its search engine results pages for those who log in to their Google account for a personalised search experience. “That means content that your Google Plus contacts have shared will enhance your search experience,” says Adhvith Dhuddu of Alive Now, a social media management firm.

The biggest improvement to Google Plus is via Hangouts - the popular group web conferencing application that lets up to 10 users share a browser-based video chat session. Hangouts On Air is a hangout that lets users broadcast and record their session. When a user is “on air”, up to nine other people can join the Hangout, though anyone can tune in to the live broadcast.

The move may pique interest among Android device users, estimated to be 10 per cent of India’s mobile handset base. Vic Gunhotra, senior vice president of engineering, Google wrote in his blog: “Hangouts currently supports Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras (and iOS support is coming soon). The new mobile app is rolling out to Android Market today [20 September], so you can start hanging out at any time, from just about anywhere.”

Social media expert Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO of social media agency WatBlog, says: “I don’t believe Google Plus was meant to be a Facebook challenger as much as it was meant to be a more controlled forum for highly-focused content. The design of Plus favours interaction within groups and is not about posting trivial comments.”

His sentiments are echoed by 32-year-old Jayaraman, a chemical engineer based in UAE. “I think Google Plus made itself better after the latest improvements. Facebook has nearly ruined its news feed. I now spend a few minutes every day unmarking updates as “top stories”. I do not want to see “top stories” when I go to my Facebook news feed, especially when Facebook has no idea what I think is important or interesting.”

It is perhaps worth pointing out that Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page himself hasn’t made any public postings on his Google Plus page in more than a month.

Why Facial Recognition Really Is Creepy

The following is an interesting post from the The Social Graf by Erik Sass, posted August 7, 2011

While lots of people have been wringing their hands about Facebook's deployment of facial recognition technology, which strikes many as a breach of privacy, I have generally been more sanguine: as long as it all occurred within the social network, and as long as you could disable the facial recognition if you want, it didn't seem like that big a deal to me. But a new study by Alessandro Acquisiti of Carnegie Mellon University points out that facial recognition raises privacy concerns that aren't so easy to dismiss.

For one thing, facial recognition can clearly be applied to images found across the Internet, not just Facebook, and then used to match information from one location with images found on another. Here, Acquisiti and his team were able to use standard, off-the-shelf facial recognition software to compare photos from Facebook and dating Web sites and identify individuals, even if they tried to obscure their identities by using different names.

Even more disturbing, from my perspective, was a second experiment in which Acquisiti and his team took photos of individuals and then compared these offline and online images; this time, they were able to discover the identities of people on Facebook with photos they provided themselves. This effectively extends the reach of photo recognition from the online world to the offline world: it's not hard to imagine someone surreptitiously snapping photos of someone out in the "real world" and then feeding them into image identification software to pull up their Facebook profile or other identifying online information.

Building on the real world-online bridge created by facial recognition, Acquisiti's team then was able to "infer" a surprising amount of data combed from other online sources, demonstrating "that it is possible to start from an anonymous face in the street, and end up with very sensitive information about that person, in a process of data ‘accretion.'" Acquisiti's study represents a warning about the still largely untapped power of "this blending of online and offline data -- made possible by the convergence of face recognition, social networks, data mining, and cloud computing."

Facial recognition also adds yet another lay of permanence (not necessarily in a good way) to the online "paper trails" people leave behind them, for good or ill, in the social media universe. It's bad enough to have your name attached to some thoughtless remark online; now you don't even have to provide your name for people to be able to link your picture to incriminating content. On that score, Acquisiti writes: "Google's Eric Schmidt observed that, in the future, young individuals may be entitled to change their names to disown youthful improprieties. It is much harder, however, to change someone's face."