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A comment on Eye Contact in Video Conferencing (2018). Parent comment

Re:Eye Contact in Video Conferencing (2018) by zeta0134 on Sunday June 09, 2019 @10:11PM (#20143322)
This is a personal anecdote, but I don't mind meeting people in person. I can do face to face conversations all day long. The minute you point a camera at me though, I shut down socially. I'm suddenly extremely self conscious about my personal appearance and my behaviors and mannerisms, and that stress makes the whole thing unpleasant.

I'm not sure why this is. I think it's not helped that subconsciously, video feels one way. A participant can be looking right at me but I can't know that, because I don't know where my face is relative to their camera. So, I assume that all participants are watching me all the time, even if that's an irrational assumption, and even though 99% of them won't care if I scratch my nose or something.

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Re:Eye Contact in Video Conferencing (2018) by colanderman on Monday June 10, 2019 @01:12AM (#20144074)
I video-mute for the same reason. My face adds nothing to the conversation, except to make me feel self-conscious. So I video-mute so I can give the conversation my focus, rather than my appearance. I don't want to take meetings in a panopticon.
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Re:Eye Contact in Video Conferencing (2018) by sethammons on Monday June 10, 2019 @07:54AM (#20145824)
Your face does add something though. We've evolved to be visual. If I'm just meeting you, an image goes a long way in cementing who you are in my brain. Seeing your expressions helps me gauge my message's reception. Is it absolutely required? Of course not. It is an additional value add to communication. Just like voice adds context you can't get with text.
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