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Almost definitely unrelated, but I find myself much more fatigued than expected after Zoom/Teams calls. Besides the emotional weirdness of digital only, no eye

Almost definitely unrelated, but I find myself much more fatigued than expected after Zoom/Teams calls. Besides the emotional weirdness of digital only, no eye contact, etc, I can't help but feel that my voice is unexpectedly tired after calls as well. I have started to think that I'm speaking too loudly to compensate for the lack of physical closeness and I'm "over modulating" my voice to "project" emotion into the call. Maybe I'm making it up? Anyone having a similar experience?

elijaht 6y ago
No- I definitely agree. I've on occasion made a call with someone who could hear me, and they point out I am not talking like normal. And to your broader points, I find myself wiped out after any significant Zoom calls. Even a stand up that runs a little long leads to me feeling wiped out
BjoernKW 6y ago
What you're describing absolutely sounds plausible. People who use their voice frequently and professionally tend to (over)compensate for perceived or real shortcomings in their environment or their own voice, which in turn can lead to self-consciousness and bad habits over time. As for the specific setting of video conference calls you're probably right, too. We tend to speak louder than necessary during such calls and to overdo our "performance" because we feel we have to compensate for missing channels such as the full range of gestures, body posture, and facial expressions. Here are a few general tips for speaking in (semi-)public settings (not just when on Zoom calls): - Slow down. - Lower your speaking voice. There are exercises for finding your natural speaking pitch. - Smile (just a little, no creepy Joker grin ;-) ). - Focus on your diaphragm rather than your throat for putting emphasis on words or syllables. This admittedly takes some getting used to.
saghm 6y ago
Out of curiosity, do you use a headset (or airpods, or anything like that)? I've found that I tend to speak a lot louder when wearing some sort of headphones due to the fact that I can't hear my voice as well, so I tend to do calls using my webcam's microphone and an external speaker so that I can talk normally. This might not be an option for you if you don't live alone, but if you have some degree of privacy while writing, I'd highly recommend trying this out!
munificent 6y ago
I find Zoom calls and even voice calls on cell phones fatiguing and frustrating. My hypothesis is that it's the latency. We humans are very sensitive to the cadence of a conversation. We wait for lulls to know when to speak. Calls over the Internet add enough latency that it really fucks up that natural process. So I find I end up being hypervigilent to try to guess ahead when the speaker is about to pause so that if I start talking now it will flow naturally. Otherwise, if I wait for them to pause, they won't hear me start for a while and will end up resuming. So it's just super draining trying to anticipate the conversational flow and make it go smoothly. I hate it.
- milesvp 6y ago
  If you use your phone for calls, I highly recommend a good headset that can handle full duplex audio. For years I couldn’t figure out why I hated talking to people on my cell phone when I loved talking over land lines. I finally realized that whenever I talked and the other person cut out, it wasn’t them stopping talking, it was the phone not sending audio to my ear. A friend of mine who used to work in telco verified that cell phones will often use half duplex for various reasons, like saving bandwidth , saving battery, even things like noise calcellation and ducking can reduce the quality of a call. He said that often blue tooth headsets will often bypass some of the software involved. My personal experience is that things arent’t as bad as they were 5 years ago, but I’ll still prefer the audio with a decent headset.

elijaht 6y ago

No- I definitely agree. I've on occasion made a call with someone who could hear me, and they point out I am not talking like normal. And to your broader points, I find myself wiped out after any significant Zoom calls. Even a stand up that runs a little long leads to me feeling wiped out

BjoernKW 6y ago

What you're describing absolutely sounds plausible. People who use their voice frequently and professionally tend to (over)compensate for perceived or real shortcomings in their environment or their own voice, which in turn can lead to self-consciousness and bad habits over time. As for the specific setting of video conference calls you're probably right, too. We tend to speak louder than necessary during such calls and to overdo our "performance" because we feel we have to compensate for missing channels such as the full range of gestures, body posture, and facial expressions. Here are a few general tips for speaking in (semi-)public settings (not just when on Zoom calls): - Slow down. - Lower your speaking voice. There are exercises for finding your natural speaking pitch. - Smile (just a little, no creepy Joker grin ;-) ). - Focus on your diaphragm rather than your throat for putting emphasis on words or syllables. This admittedly takes some getting used to.

saghm 6y ago

Out of curiosity, do you use a headset (or airpods, or anything like that)? I've found that I tend to speak a lot louder when wearing some sort of headphones due to the fact that I can't hear my voice as well, so I tend to do calls using my webcam's microphone and an external speaker so that I can talk normally. This might not be an option for you if you don't live alone, but if you have some degree of privacy while writing, I'd highly recommend trying this out!

munificent 6y ago

I find Zoom calls and even voice calls on cell phones fatiguing and frustrating. My hypothesis is that it's the latency. We humans are very sensitive to the cadence of a conversation. We wait for lulls to know when to speak. Calls over the Internet add enough latency that it really fucks up that natural process. So I find I end up being hypervigilent to try to guess ahead when the speaker is about to pause so that if I start talking now it will flow naturally. Otherwise, if I wait for them to pause, they won't hear me start for a while and will end up resuming. So it's just super draining trying to anticipate the conversational flow and make it go smoothly. I hate it.

milesvp 6y ago
If you use your phone for calls, I highly recommend a good headset that can handle full duplex audio. For years I couldn’t figure out why I hated talking to people on my cell phone when I loved talking over land lines. I finally realized that whenever I talked and the other person cut out, it wasn’t them stopping talking, it was the phone not sending audio to my ear. A friend of mine who used to work in telco verified that cell phones will often use half duplex for various reasons, like saving bandwidth , saving battery, even things like noise calcellation and ducking can reduce the quality of a call. He said that often blue tooth headsets will often bypass some of the software involved. My personal experience is that things arent’t as bad as they were 5 years ago, but I’ll still prefer the audio with a decent headset.