How to avoid 'Zoom fatigue' during the Covid pandemic
如何在新冠疫情期间避免“Zoom疲惫”
Imagine you are walking around your workplace followed incessantly by colleagues holding a mirror that causes you to stare at yourself for large parts of the day.
想象一下，在一天大部分时间里，无论你走到工作环境的哪个角落，身边一直有同事拿着一面镜子对着你，让你和自己面面相觑。
The bizarre scenario is in effect becoming the norm in the era of physically distanced video conference meetings and this “nonverbal overload” is leading to “Zoom fatigue”, according to a study by Jeremy Bailenson, professor of communication at Stanford University.
斯坦福大学传播学教授杰里米·拜伦森的一项研究显示，上述看似天方夜谭的场景其实已经成为了远程视频会议时代的常态，而且这种“非言语过载”正导致“Zoom疲惫”的发生。
The new peer-reviewed research, published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behaviour, listed the consequences of likely unprecedentedly excessive amounts of close-up eye contact with others and reflections of oneself during prolonged video chats.
这项经同行评审的最新研究发表于期刊《技术、思想与行为》，对于在超时长视频聊天中可能出现的过度近距离眼神交流以及自我审视，该研究列举出了其后果。
“Decades of psychology research shows that when you’re looking at yourself we scrutinise ourselves, we evaluate ourselves, and this over time causes stress and negative emotions,” Bailenson said.
“数十年的心理学研究显示，当我们和自己面面相觑时，我们会自我审视、自我评估，这样一来就会造成紧张和负面情绪，”拜伦森认为。
“When we’re forced to look at ourselves in a realtime video or mirror, we do behave as an idealised version of ourselves, in other words we try to be the best person we can be. But that comes at a cost.”
“当我们不得不在实时视频或者在镜子中审视自己时，我们试图展示一个理想化的自己，也就是说，我们想展现出最好的自己，但是这是要付出相应代价的。”
When another person’s face is extremely physically close to ours, our brains are led to believe conflict is close on the horizon, according to Bailenson. “What’s happening, in effect, when you’re using Zoom for many, many hours is you’re in this hyper-aroused state.”
拜伦森认为，“当别人的脸距离我们很近时，我们的大脑会认为有冲突即将发生，所以当我们持续使用Zoom很久时，我们会处于一种高度应激的状态”。
But there are easy ways to avoid the intensity and minimise the inevitable lethargy, he says. These include reducing the size of the video chat window and not using full screen, and using an external keyboard to create greater distance between oneself and the grid of prying faces.
但是要缓解上述情形，将不可避免的疲惫感降到最低，也并非难事。我们可以将聊天窗口缩小，不要使用全屏显示，并且使用外接键盘，从而将增加自己与视频宫格中脸孔之间的距离。
Crucially, Zoom users can also diverge from the default settings and use the hide self-view button, or even periodically turn their camera off altogether if feasible, “to give oneself a brief nonverbal rest”, Bailenson writes.
重要的是，Zoom用户可以调整初始设置，将自己的影像隐藏，或者在可行的情况下，甚至是偶尔地将自己的摄像头全部关闭，“从而给自己短暂的非言语休息，” 拜伦森写道。
“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, so that for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless,” he says.
“这不仅仅只是关闭摄像头，让自己暂时退出非言语活动的状态，我们也要让自己远离屏幕，这样我们就可以从一些行为举止中脱离出来喘口气，这些行为举止虽然在感觉上很现实，但是就社交而言毫无意义，”他说。
In person, people can derive social cues, hints and suggestions much more easily than over video, but with mass homeworking because of Covid the frequency of video conference meetings steeply increased and Zoom became the most popular software for this purpose because it was free, effective and easy to use.
面对面的情况下，我们可以更容易地获取社交提示、暗示以及建议，但是新冠疫情导致大量的人在家工作，视频会议的使用频率陡增，而且Zoom成为了视频会议最受欢迎的软件，因为该软件免费、高效而且易于操作。
