Not everyone wants to go back to face to face meetings

Zoom calls and online meetings have kept us all working away while we go in and out of lockdowns but I'll admit, I'm tired of them. Zoom fatigue is real; Stanford University found 4 reasons why we have it:

1) Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.

2) Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.

3) Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.

4) The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.

So I was surprised when a friend who runs a photography meet-up said that the group voted to go hybrid even though they were physically able to meet face to face again. He explained the obvious reasons such as less travel time and parking challenges, but he also explained that online actually improve inclusiveness, and technically it makes more sense for some activities, such as photography! Examples include:

- Those at the front of the room dominate the discussion - online those in the 'back of the room' can equally participate
- Zooming in to see the detail of the photos is useful - cannot do that face to face, and it is often difficult to see details in the photographs from the back of the room.

Well, it looks like zoom, and online meetings, are here to stay.