Feeling exhausted from video-chatting? You are not alone.

Thankfully, technology has allows us to stay connected with people in ways that we had not been able to in the past. Video-chatting has also been a valuable way for schools to transition to remote learning and for parents to transition to working at home. It adds an extra layer of interaction when we can see the person we are speaking to versus when we can only hear them over the phone so at first thought, video-chatting seems to be an excellent substitute when face-to-face interaction is not possible. However, many people are finding themselves exhausted in ways that seem explainable after spending a lot of time on the computer, chatting away. Why are we so tired?! After all, we are all probably sleeping more and spending less time running errands, etc., which are all things that used to make us tired. What gives? Well, there are many features of video vs. face-to-face interaction that are taxing on our brains. Since video-chatting is here to stay, click here to read a National Geographic article on how our brains respond differently to this type of interaction.