Camera Fatigue

Why Do People Turn Off Their Personal Computer Cameras In Virtual Meetings?

When A Virtual Meeting Comes Into My Home. I have a right to limit how deeply into my life the other virtual meeting participants can come. A virtual two feet from my face is sometimes too close and personal.

To Reduce Camera Fatigue. Constantly seeing my own on-camera appearance is tiring, other people may appear too close up for comfort, and it is a strain to pick up on non-verbal cues that are much easier to interpret in person.

It Is Not Easy to Look Engaged. Non-stop interpersonal engagement requires some degree of interpersonal lying, and I do not want to lie.

To Take the Pressure Off Appearance. Maintaining a suitable personal appearance is sometimes hard for a busy, tired, sick, old and/or handicapped person; and keeping a tidy background, or worrying over pets and other people coming into the camera view also can be challenging.

Concern About Remote Viewers. Just as you would not linger with strangers in dark corners, there are times when I may not want to be remotely viewed by unknown people who are off-camera. It is a safety issue.

Participating At A Lower Level of Involvement. Virtual meeting participation can require a huge amount of energy, but not all meetings require this level of input from every person attending the virtual meeting. Sometimes you want to be with the group just to give and receive support but you do not want to be a visual center of attention, so you turn off your PC camera.

...And Plunging Off The Deep End Of Artificial Intelligence. One might be video-recorded in a virtual meeting, by someone with malicious intentions, in unflattering or deceptive ways. The recording of you might be manipulated to put a bad actor's words in your mouth, to misrepresent your actual words or the context, and the lie posted on the dark web for who knows what purpose. Your face might be pasted on another person's body doing some crime which could entangle you legally, which might leave you open to blackmail. At the very least a video recording is an indelible record of your response to something today that years later, when more is known, would prove to be regrettable.

People Who Expose Their Sexuality. Virtual meetings have not been around for very long, but already there are those who use it as an opportunity to expose their sex organs. Ewww. I would like to think that being off-camera inhibits this aberrant behavior, but there are those who would howl at the moon if no one else would listen. At least off-camera I can deny the perverts the opportunity to see my disgust.

Damper On Arguments. The intimacy of virtual meetings seems to lend itself to spontaneous blowups into dissent; <video off> cools the heat of it. I would like a <video off> option in real life. :-)

That being said, virtual meetings are a godsend because they give us access from anywhere in the world to be among people we value and enjoy, to the best of our abilities.

Annmarie Throckmorton

self-portrait, copyright 10-22-23