Zoom School fatigue is real and all of us are suffering from it right now. So many students and teachers alike are reporting the same experience of feeling sluggish and depleted so the term “Zoom fatigue” was born. Humans communicate even when they are quiet and the brain needs body language just as much as words when talking to someone. Brady Bunch-style, or gallery view, overwhelms your brain and while focusing on so many things at once it is harder to get any information from the main speaker.

Dozens of non-verbals cues dictate how the conversation or lecture is going and only seeing people from the waist up makes it difficult for Zoomers to pick up on motions such as fidgeting. If the quality is low even facial expressions can be difficult to perceive. During a virtual group presentation, one group was annoyed to find out that with no eye contact it was hard to get individual members to speak. “The only way you can get their attention is by calling them out and no one wants that,” said senior Reese Tobin. “In school, I would have just nudged them or tapped them on the arm.”

Along with the mental drain, there is the physical drain. Eyes get sore from too many electrifyingly bright screens all day; fingers are sore after hours of doing assignments on the computer; feet fall asleep from sitting down too much. Overall the Zoom learning platform takes a lot more energy than originally speculated. “Without the commute to and from school I am better with time management but I feel more stressed and drained than ever before,” said senior Maddie Bartlett.

There have already been studies that sitting in a desk for too long can wreak havoc on someone’s posture along with cramping a person’s neck and back, but who knows what damage sitting in bed all day or lounging on the couch for long periods of time is doing? Students are coming together to find out that joining class from bed leads to soreness like never before. “I find myself after every class exhausted, but also like I didn’t accomplish anything,” said junior Maddie Krachon.

The greatest irony of it all is that this reporter is writing this story after attending three Zoom classes from the same chair I have been sitting in all day. I bounce my leg up and down then get up and pace the room only to sit down and stare at a screen some more. Zoom is draining us all but as Warriors who are experiencing this together, we are going to get through it together. Maybe time to get some blue-light blocking specs and … Go Dubs!