Sometimes in a café, earphones depressed and smartphone in fragile balance, fearing that the music and the bursts of voice from the next table will not be heard. Or at home, with a neutral background to hide your privacy, unless you want to show it off. In any case, we check the hairstyle and the eyeliner, the tie knot. Close-up or wider camera, today’s meetings require having the skills of hairdresser, make-up artist, props man, cameraman and Spielberg, in addition of course to those, professionals, for which one is invited. All of this in seconds with the timer on screen as you tame the last wild hair. Remote appointments have changed habits. “We tend to believe that video is comparable to a classic meeting where everyone is physically present. But it is not so,” analyzes Emma Pitzalis, psychologist.
“We see the strangeness of the looks”
“Today, many meetings go through videoconferencing. Many people see the advantages of teleworking, in particular the saving of time compared to transport”, continues the author of the Guide to survival in the land of psychotherapy: practical manual for the beginner psychiatrist (Enrick B. editions, 2020). An essential device in a world altered by the Covid: the weekly average of three meetings in 2015 has increased to more than five, or even more than six in large companies, i.e. more than one per day (Ifop for Speechi, October 2021) . A trivialized form of work while it is far from trivial. Emma Pitzalis describes it: “First there is the framing of the camera. We only see the face of the people, not their posture, if someone has their leg impatient or taps on their phone. Images often of poor quality, which do not allow you to see if someone is blushing or if a tear is running down their cheek. In addition, you can see the strangeness of the looks: we all tend to stare at the screen”.
In a face-to-face meeting, on the contrary, looks are exchanged, sometimes complicit, sometimes annoyed, and we collect a lot more non-verbal information that supports our understanding. “When we talk face-to-face, we look at the eyes, the face and the mouth and we read lips naturally”. This lip reading supports our understanding and avoids misunderstandings. “I would add that empathy is also diminished. Capturing the non-verbal is difficult to access, so the action of the ‘mirror neurons’ which record the emotional state of the other is diminished, or even non-existent”. Finally, what about his perception of his image, on the screen, continuously? His mint-colored eyes searched for a spotlight for the projector god… “This natural condition accentuates the attention paid to one’s own person, ‘social desirability’, that is to say the human wish to want to be perceived in a favorable light by others. So in video, we smile and we nods more often. Fewer questions are asked and disagreements are expressed less.
Cognitive overload
For the expert, these conditions linked to video, quite different from face-to-face communication, involve cognitive overload because our energy is pumped to function in conditions that are not natural to us. “The effects of video combine with each other. They don’t just add up, they multiply!”. She drives the point home: “these losses of information have harmful effects on our intelligence. Our capacities for attention and memorization are diminished”. It is more difficult to summarize a video meeting, which is often longer. To combat these pitfalls, she recommends that the manager rediscover the meaning of the meeting: why? With what objectives? Is it about sharing information or making decisions? Depending on the answer, there is the format: half an hour? Two o’clock ? Who animates? “It is useful to take a moment to reflect on these questions as a team”. Emma Pitzalis recommends resuming some face-to-face meetings, at least once a month. She insists: you have to come back to the office regularly; check in at the coffee machine, fix problems there. “These are ‘interstitial times’ that don’t seem productive, but literally fuel the company’s wealth creation.” The screen must not obstruct what the pack or the community produces. “It is a form of social hygiene to meet again”.