Mirror mirror on the call

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Today’s read time: 2 minutes

Imagine how ridiculous it would be for you to show up to the office or to a party with a hand-held mirror. Holding this mirror up would enable you, in every moment, to see yourself as others see you. As a result, you’d likely find yourself:

• diverting eye contact away from others and toward the mirror

• focusing on the minutiae of your expressions, reactions, etc.

• lost in thought about how you’re coming across

• missing subtle yet important cues from others

Overall, you’d be overly consumed with yourself and way less present with the people around you. 

The thing is, though: that’s precisely what occurs on video calls when we have our camera on and our video visible to ourselves!

We now refer to the cognitive load of attending numerous virtual meetings, “Zoom fatigue”. Direct eye contact for sustained periods is exhausting, being on camera restricts our mobility, and guess what? Being hyper-conscious of our face is awkward and draining.

We're at a point now where we need boundaries for staring at our own face. 

Have your camera on so others can see you? Right on. Others have their cameras on so you can see them? Makes sense. Have your own video up so you can see yourself? Hell nah.

Forget yo’ kids and wives, hide yo’ self.

FYI: Here’s how to “hide yourself” on Zoom, here’s how to do in on Google Meet, and here’s how to do it on Microsoft Teams.

With deep appreciation,
Phil

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