3 ms·

Turning your camera on gives you an additional channel of communication and all the benefits that come with better communication. Ask yourself: how beneficial w

Turning your camera on gives you an additional channel of communication and all the benefits that come with better communication. Ask yourself: how beneficial would being a better communicator be to me? A coworker tells a joke and sees me legitimately smile and laugh at it, what effect does that have on my coworkers opinion of me? Someone is expressing a weird idea and I get to frown and shake my head on camera, what power does this give me in the conversation? If I'm the only one with my camera on I've got a complete monopoly on a channel of communication, and humans only have 2 or 3, one of them is all mine. People with higher quality audio are perceived as smarter [0]. I wouldn't be surprised if those with video enabled are perceived as smarter as well, and more likeable. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26818774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26818774

bradknowles 5y ago
I agree that the bulk of human communication is non-verbal. The human brain devotes an immense amount of tissue to the processing of visual information, either directly or indirectly. But a lot of that gets lost in a sea of tiny postage-stamp size sub-screens in a video wall. What is the remaining percentage that is valuable? How much mental effort do those people have to put into looking at the camera and pretending to be engaged? Are you going to force all the lefties to write in a right-handed manner? Are you going to force all the females to adopt male pronouns? Where along that spectrum do the video-averse people rank compared to those who are video-craving and at what point are you costing the company way more money by forcing everyone to adhere to your particular preferences that may not be widely shared? I’m not saying I have any answers. I am saying that this is a problem that is more complex than a lot of people think it is, and a lot of thought needs to go into whatever standards you choose to set.
- Buttons840 5y ago
  I don't think people should be forced to turn on their camera. I turn mine off sometimes, sometimes just because I feel like it. That's ok. I was only suggesting that people turn on their camera if they want to be more relatable and have more influence.

bradknowles 5y ago

I agree that the bulk of human communication is non-verbal. The human brain devotes an immense amount of tissue to the processing of visual information, either directly or indirectly. But a lot of that gets lost in a sea of tiny postage-stamp size sub-screens in a video wall. What is the remaining percentage that is valuable? How much mental effort do those people have to put into looking at the camera and pretending to be engaged? Are you going to force all the lefties to write in a right-handed manner? Are you going to force all the females to adopt male pronouns? Where along that spectrum do the video-averse people rank compared to those who are video-craving and at what point are you costing the company way more money by forcing everyone to adhere to your particular preferences that may not be widely shared? I’m not saying I have any answers. I am saying that this is a problem that is more complex than a lot of people think it is, and a lot of thought needs to go into whatever standards you choose to set.

Buttons840 5y ago
I don't think people should be forced to turn on their camera. I turn mine off sometimes, sometimes just because I feel like it. That's ok. I was only suggesting that people turn on their camera if they want to be more relatable and have more influence.