The reason most people feel drained after video calls but not after phone calls has less to do with screen fatigue and more to do with the fact that seeing your own face continuously activates self-monitoring circuits your brain was never designed to sustain - Silicon Canals

"Video calls obliterated all three of those constraints at once. Now your face floats in a small rectangle in the corner of your screen, moving, reacting, grimacing, for the entire duration of the conversation. You didn't ask to see it. You can't look away from it for long. And it moves with you, which means your brain treats it as live social feedback rather than a passive image."

"Research has identified continuous self-view during video calls as a primary contributor to video conferencing fatigue. Studies suggest that prolonged exposure to your own image triggers continuous self-evaluation, a process the brain typically reserves for high-stakes social moments: job interviews, first dates, public speaking. Except now it runs during a Tuesday standup about quarterly metrics."

Video calls cause fatigue differently than phone calls because they force continuous self-monitoring. Historically, humans rarely saw their own faces except through brief, voluntary mirror glances. Video conferencing eliminates this choice—your face appears constantly in a small rectangle, moving in real time. Your brain interprets this live self-image as social feedback, triggering the same intensive self-evaluation normally reserved for high-stakes situations like job interviews or public speaking. This continuous self-monitoring process depletes cognitive resources, explaining why thirty-minute video calls feel exhausting while longer phone calls feel energizing. The fatigue results from psychological strain rather than visual strain from screens.

Read at Silicon Canals