The amount of time you spend videoconferencing—using Zoom, Teams, or whatever your preferred mode of face-to-face real-time digital communication may be—affects your health. We’ve all heard of the relationships between too much use of social media and poor mental and physical health, but there are now interesting possibilities that videoconferencing could have some unexpected impacts, as well. Some of these impacts are on physical health, somewhat related to poor posture and repetitive strain, but there may be surprising knock-on effects for feelings and emotions. These suggestions are based on what we know about the physical effects of technology and the effects of posture on mental health. The good news is that there may be some very quick fixes for these problems.

Recent statistics suggest that videoconferencing is a major part of many people’s work lives, as well as being increasingly used in everyday social media interactions. About 30 percent of our work time is spent in virtual meetings,¹ and more than 70 percent of people now use interactive video facilities (like FaceTime).² This may be a promising turn of events, as real-time interaction, when you can see somebody, may alleviate some of the psychological damage that can be done by traditional social media. We don’t fully know that this is true yet, but, if real-time video communication is the same as real-time phone conversations, it may not carry with it the increased loneliness and social isolation of traditional social media.³

Posture

Yet, video communication may bring new problems—although these may be more tractable than the psychological issues that we know go with traditional social media. Think of yourself sitting in front of a screen during a Zoom or Teams meeting. Think about your posture in front of the camera. Does that posture change over the course of a long session? Many people will find that they slump down into their chair. Their back becomes bent, their shoulders begin to drop, and their chin starts to be held closer and closer to their chest.⁴ These are the physical characteristics of what could be called "Zoom slump." It turns out that Zoom slump may matter for two very important reasons.

The first is that this poor posture can produce stresses and strains on the body. If these stresses persist for long enough, then they can develop into repetitive strain injuries.⁵ Severe neck strain and aches can start to mimic the effects of whiplash injuries. These repetitive strains can last a long time and can be extremely debilitating and painful.

So, think about posture when you are in front of the camera, and try to limit the time you are static. Remember, in a real-world meeting, you don’t tend to sit so still for so long. There are often several people in the room with you, and, in order to interact with them all, you need to move position so you can look at them. This is not the case on Zoom or Teams, where everybody is in the gallery, all subtending about the same visual angle to you, meaning that you don’t need to move from the slump. Even in a real-world one-to-one, the other person will move from time to time, so you have to move to maintain social contact.

Movement

However, there is another more subtle effect that may need to be explored. This suggestion comes from what we know about sensorimotor psychotherapy—the use of movement to help with various psychological problems. This allows some integration between the worlds of psychoanalysis, behaviourism, and physical therapy.

Think about what happens when you feel depressed. Think of the way in which your body changes its shape. Perhaps your shoulders drop, your back begins to curve downward as you drop your head, you lower your eyes, and you bring in your arms for defence and self-comfort. These are all physical responses to neurological systems that trigger when we are under threat. Animal behaviourists have long seen these responses in nonhumans, and neuroscientists have discussed them in relation to structural dissociation in the brain after trauma. Similarly, sensorimotor psychotherapists have used these responses in order to focus on physically oriented changes to address psychological problems.⁶

Now think about what happens to your body after an hour or so of Zoom—maybe even less time than that. If your body starts to take on the characteristic Zoom slump, then maybe you will start to feel depressed. We often don’t know how we feel until we think about it—we try to read the signs to understand what our emotion might be. These signs can be outside us in the world, or inside our bodies. The strains of the Zoom slump position make us feel something, we don’t know what it is, so we interpret. The feelings from our body position immediately evoke depression—especially if the meeting is a very long and turgid one that we have to attend, but in which we have absolutely no interest!

So, Zoom slump is not just a physical position, it’s a state of mind. Whereas traditional social media makes us feel depressed and lonely, real-time face-to-face social media makes us think we’re depressed. The longer the meeting, the more we feel depressed (no joke intended), and the less productive the meeting gets. The solution is simple—talk less, move more!

These suggestions also imply that any connection between Zoom use and depression may not be caused by the same mechanisms as connections between traditional social media and depression. As we move to more real-time face-to-face digital communication, the problems may become more physically produced than psychosocial. The data are still out on this one. However, we do know that Zoom slump can be combatted quite easily, and it’s one more thing just to be aware of when engaging in the digital world. It’s very annoying to think this, but all those people who told us, when we were children, to stand and sit up straight, shoulders back, and chin up, might just have been right—and well ahead of their time.