The REAL reason Zoom calls make you feel ugly, according to a psychiatrist

We’re all guilty of it: You’re in the middle of a Zoom meeting and instead of focusing on what your colleagues are saying, you look at your face in the corner of the screen.

You are flooded with thoughts about your appearance: has anyone noticed the pimple on the tip of your nose? Why does everyone wear makeup while you had no problem with it?

The Zoom era has had a serious impact on the nation’s confidence, with research showing that the more time women spend on video calls, the less satisfied they are with their appearance.

Additionally, plastic surgeons have seen a 150 percent increase in demand for some facial treatments since 2019, according to T.The American Society of Plastic Surgeons . And countless experts have linked the rise in popularity of customizations to our new Zoom culture.

But why can digital interactions make us feel so much more self-conscious than in real life?

Now, experts from the University of Colorado have shed light on the answer and offered some tips to keep video calls from making you feel ugly.

“For some people, video calls may increase feelings of outward dissatisfaction that may have been more fleeting before the Zoom era,” Emily Hemendinger, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado, wrote on the science culture website: The conversation.

The first problem is that the simple presence of your face on the screen – for extended periods of time – forces us to focus on it and notice perceived flaws, says Prof. Hemendinger.

Researchers at Witchita University conducted a study last year in which they tracked the gaze and attention of a small group of volunteers during Zoom calls.

They found that on average, participants focused on the person speaking for three-quarters of the conversation, and indulged in various distractions the rest of the time.

Video calls have been linked to a 150 percent increase in some cosmetic surgery procedures since before the pandemic, due to the unique focus on our own expressions

However, women were more likely to spend their distracted time looking at themselves; some female participants focused on their reflection for 20 percent of the call.

Other studies have shown that women suffer from Zoom fatigue more often than men – exhaustion caused my marathon videoconferencing sessions – which experts say is due to their focus on the self-view screen.

And video calls are unique because they “allow people to easily compare themselves to others and see themselves share and speak in real time,” says Prof. Hemendinger.

In other words, it allows us to see ourselves in motion, where parts of the face may look different than when they are still.

Added to this is the impact of a concept known as ‘the spotlight effect’.

“Video chatters have difficulty determining where other users are looking,” says Prof. Hemendinger. This causes us to overestimate the amount of time others spend judging our appearance.

“It can lead to increased anxiety and people thinking others are judging their appearance during a video call,” she writes.

As for what you should do to protect your self-confidence, Prof. Hemendinger has a few tips.

‘Be conscious about it focusing on what other people are saying in a video conference instead of squinting at your own face.

“And when you watch yourself and your peers on video and social media, try to focus on the person as a whole and not on parts of a body.

‘ Research shows that reducing social media use by 50 percent can improve appearance satisfaction for both teens and adults.”