New Orleans The pandemic may be over, but one of the after effects that has become permanent is Zoom and the other video conferencing tools, whether Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or whatever. I wonder about them even as I use them regularly.
We have a regular team meeting every Wednesday afternoon. Check-ins with our Indian and African organizers are also regular, and my calendar has frequent Zoom calls with the head organizers in the United Kingdom and France. I now do almost all of my radio interviews on Zoom, because it’s more convenient for both me and the folks on the other end, especially if they are not US-based or on the West Coast and don’t want to be doing a live radio call at 7AM.
Recently, I did a training on Zoom for fifteen or so folks, some of whom I could see on the screen and others were just thumbprints in the gallery. I don’t think Zoom works well in these situations. One of my colleagues has several “group” Zooms per week with a shifting band of regulars and invited guests, which often seems dead, when I walk into the room. Another uses them with a political group vetting endorsements, and, always, seems to have technical problems that suck ten or fifteen minutes out of the call as a constant affliction. As a rule of thumb, I’ve found anything over an hour on video is death.
How can we not worry about what Zoom and similar video conferences are doing to communications and the quality of the work interactions we have? Nosing around, a study reported in Scientific American deepened my worries. The report was evenhanded, and they took no black-and-white definitive positions, but were clear that all of this can “dumb down” discussions, while recommending that turning video off often changes the interaction in ways that can improve discussions. I turn off the video doing radio interviews in order not to strain connectivity, but now I’m thinking that might also be improving the quality of the interchange by taking away concerns about visual tics, appearances, and whatever for a “just the fact” interview.
The article found video conference reduced the discussion quality in a number of ways:
- Reduced nonverbal cues: Limited body language and subtle facial cues make it harder to read intent, emotion, and engagement, increasing misunderstandings and flattening nuance.
- Lag and turn-taking friction: Latency and lack of natural conversational backchannels (micro-pauses, overlap) make interruptions awkward, so conversations become more sequential and less spontaneous.
- Cognitive load: Camera self-awareness, screen fatigue, and monitoring multiple on-screen elements consume attention, leaving less capacity for deep listening and complex reasoning.
- Social signaling bias: People rely on visible status cues (backgrounds, dress, lighting) and platform norms (mute/unmute) which can skew who speaks and how assertively.
- Overreliance on verbal clarity: Because other cues are reduced, speakers simplify language and repeat points, which can lead to oversimplification of complex ideas.
All of those reasons make a case for more flexibility in letting the cameras go off. Many insist on them in order to prevent multi-tasking and to police attention. That’s likely to rub participants the wrong way and impact the quality of the discussion negatively as well. As managers, we may not care, but we ought to acknowledge the tradeoffs. Some even see folks with their cameras off as rude and ill-mannered, as well as potential scofflaws. Obviously, the camera helps when sharing documents and in one-one-one conversations that are more personal and routine, like my regular calls, where I think it works well.
Bottom line: Video conferencing can blunt conversational richness, but turning video off often improves concentration and candor for analytic discussion. Context also matters. Reportedly, many organizations and meeting types now accept camera-off norms for privacy, bandwidth, neurodiversity, caregiving, or mental-health reasons. They also claim that good etiquette is to state expectations in advance and allow reasonable exceptions.
Who knew there might be such a thing as manners when it comes to technology, but I guess if we’re going to continue to normalize video conferencing in our work, it’s worth remembering, if we want to get the quality of participation, interaction, and thinking that we need to move forward.