A new study indicates that replacing in-person communication with online can have a sustained negative impact on our mood and energy levels
Over the last few years, a growing body of research has explored the effects of “Zoom fatigue” on staff morale and engagement. As providers of leadership development, we’ve also been interested in research looking at how online training alone fails to provide a rounded, engaging experience for employees and is less likely to see the learning embedded for day-to-day use in the office.
Online-only training – a false economy?
In fact, a growing number of business leaders are now telling us that although purely online learning modules can be convenient and low cost, they actually end up being less effective.
A new study from Austria, published in Nature magazine, adds to the evidence that more than just being dull and tiresome, excessive use of on-screen communication rather than traditional in-person interactions can affect our mental health as well as our ability to learn and work with colleagues. Here, scientists collected data on the mental health and communications styles of over 400 people over a four-week period.
The subjects of the study were asked to report regularly on their thoughts, moods and behaviour. More specifically they shared with the researchers’ insights into their mental state and the amount of time that they spent on both in-person communications and digital communications such as Teams, Zoom or WhatsApp. They also talked about their physical and outdoor activities.
In-person communication is better for good mental health
However, while physical outdoor activities are important, the researchers found that in-person communication was “the most important predictor,” of good mental health. They added: “Our results are clear: face-to-face [in-person] communication was much more important for mental health than digital communication.” They concluded that digital communications are “unequal substitutes for face-to-face [in-person] interaction.”
The reasons for this finding are not surprising but are worth reflecting on. When we talk and interact with someone in person as opposed to seeing their face on a screen, we pick up so many little cues, many of which are subconscious. Facial expressions, body language and eye contact all form part of the assessment we make about other people when we meet them. These essential judgements – and our responses to them – are part of our animal brains. Do we trust these people? Will they cooperate with us or harm us?
In fact, the lack of eye contact when we’re interacting with someone on a screen, the distracting sight of our own faces and the extra effort needed to speak into a microphone and listen on speakers all make the experience, frankly exhausting, in a way that never happens when we’re chatting to someone in person.
“In the classroom is best”
When it comes to training, the benefits of meeting face-to-face are even more noticeable. We recently interviewed people from a variety of organisations to ask them about in-person and virtual training. “Getting people together in a room allows time to let things breathe and to allow for that small talk that really connects people. This never happens over Teams or Zoom. People never truly network or connect.” said one, while another told us: “In the classroom is best. Because it is what you learn in the classroom that really sticks.”
When researchers from Cornell University and Western University compared the success of requests for a favour made by a group of participants to their own contacts, requests made face-to-face were a staggering thirty-four times more likely to produce a positive result.
Zoom, Teams and Google Meet will continue to have their place in the working world, but this latest study adds to our research and many other surveys that the most effective communication happens face-to-face.
