Four proposed reasons video calls may tire you
What they found
A Stanford researcher proposes four reasons video calls might tire people - nonstop close-up eye contact, harder work sending and reading signals, watching yourself, and sitting still.
How they know
An argument from earlier studies, not an experiment. In one, strangers spoke louder on video. By his informal measure, a laptop face looked as big as a real one 50 cm away.
What it means for you
His fixes are cheap but untested - hide self-view, take some calls by phone. He argues gaze and gesture take less effort in person.
The limits
No new data. He says his ideas await testing and people may simply have more meetings. A self-selected survey he co-authored linked all four to self-reported fatigue. A 2025 diary study found video meetings no more tiring than others.
This is a short takeaway in our own words, not a reproduction of the study. For the method, the sample and the caveats, read the original. Mind lives inside the Booking Minds app under the brain icon, where you can save and share each piece.