Many new phrases have entered our vocabulary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. “_Zoom fatigue_” refers to the mental exhaustion associated with online video conferencing. We

can change _how we interact on video calls_ with adapted _social behaviours_ such as scheduling shorter meetings. But theories from audio and sound research tell us that a lot of what

determines how fatigued you become is based on what you are listening to. The voices transmitted through the internet in real time are unedited and therefore crude to our ears. That is why

we can wile away an hour listening to a podcast interview but feel drained after a video meeting – even if we didn’t have to contribute. The good news is each one of us can contribute to

effect your voice might be having on other callers, the problem is you don’t know what it actually sounds like on their devices. Face to face we can hear ourselves in the same environment as

our audience hears us and we adjust accordingly but that’s not possible online. Step into your listener’s shoes: record a meeting on your own and listen back to understand how others hear

you. Something as simple as adjusting _the position, distance, or direction of your microphone_ could make a big difference. Switching from a laptop’s built-in microphone to a headphone

microphone can mask a lot of environmental noises such as keyboard clicking or room echo. While the content and topics of our video conversations may remain the same, we are constrained by

the technology. Listening to group chats can be exhausting because we have lost the ways we _use “back-channel” sounds_ to give _turn-taking_feedback. Network problems can also impact speech

clarity. Data loss in the audio feed can cause unnatural sounding voices and missing sounds. Our brain needs to do extra work to _fill in the gaps_. We use energy concentrating on unnatural

voice changes that divert our concentration from understanding the message. We must acknowledge the _technical limits_ of video chats and adapt by cultivating new conversation etiquettes.

Mute your microphones after saying hello and using text chat to interject or raise questions in group conversations. Articulate your own speech clearly (don’t mumble) and turn on _closed

captions_ to aid your comprehension. And make sure someone else in the house is not consuming all the bandwidth for Netflix while you are having a video conference. Conversations in a

household environment bring background noises as well as echoes and reverberation due to _room acoustics_. Typical background conversations in open-plan offices can easily be filtered out

subconsciously by our brain due to its ability to separate sounds by their location or direction. These _spatial cues_ allow us to focus on a single speaker in a crowded room. This is one

reason why side-conversations held in parallel to the main discussion do not work on a video conference. Without the aid of directional information background noises and speech become a lot

more intrusive. Rooms at home can produce _reverberations that can reduce your ability to understand speech._ To make your home video environment more accommodating, close the door to at

least keep pets out, even if it cannot stop kids interrupting. You may not want to convert your living room into a recording studio by putting egg cartons all over the wall but you can make

the acoustic environment more “voice friendly” by _reducing reverberation and echoes_ with soft furnishings like blankets or pillows instead of plain walls. The _bookcase in the background

is not just a pretty prop_ but also a good acoustic baffle. Just like social distancing, improving the quality of your video call experience relies on a community effort. As many of us won’t

be going back into the office for a long time, we must all work to reduce Zoom fatigue and make calls less of a strain for everyone. _(This piece has been produced in arrangement with The

Conversation. You can read the original story here.)_