The phenomenon was dubbed Zoom fatigue, after the popular videoconferencing software. As the Covid pandemic enters its second year, with many people still working and attending school remotely, researchers from Stanford and other schools are starting to closely study how videoconferencing affects people on a psychological level. There are four main ways that videoconferencing could contribute to feelings of exhaustion, wrote Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, in a paper published Wednesday: Videoconferencing forces users to make extended eye contact Nonverbal signals like nodding require more effort The little box where users see themselves is unnatural