Julia Sklar, writing for the Science section of National Geographic explains why I’m feeling so exhausted teaching remotely over video conferencing compared to when I teaching in-person classes. ‘Zoom gloom’ — an unexpected and real side effect of working remote with video.

However, a typical video call impairs these ingrained abilities, and requires sustained and intense attention to words instead. If a person is framed only from the shoulders up, the possibility of viewing hand gestures or other body language is eliminated. If the video quality is poor, any hope of gleaning something from minute facial expressions is dashed.

Multi-person screens magnify this exhausting problem. Gallery view—where all meeting participants appear Brady Bunch-style—challenges the brain’s central vision, forcing it to decode so many people at once that no one comes through meaningfully, not even the speaker.

It’s even possible Zoom fatigue will abate once people learn to navigate the mental tangle video chatting can cause.