The Zoom Gaze
Autumm Caines,
Real Life,
Jan 04, 2021
Autumm Caines considers the question of 'Zoom fatigue' and traces it to the unrelenting stare of the camera using the analogy of the 'Zoom gaze', a concept that incorporates the idea of being treated as an object, subject to inspection, and required to consider (and adjust) the details of your appearance, behaviour and environment to meet the expectations of others. She borrows from the concepts of Laura Mulvey's "male gaze" and Toni Morrison's "white gaze" to arrive at this metaphor. As she runs through a long list of things Zoom users must take into account while online, two things struck me: first, that no shorter a list of things must be taken into account in personal face-to-face interactions (perhaps even more!), and second, that her list made me think of all the things that I (and probably other introverts) constantly review and think about in any face-to-face encounter (which is why face-to-face leaves us exhausted). So I suggest that maybe Caines isn't describing properties of Zoom videoconferencing, but rather, the properties of (some) Zoom users, and specifically, (what I'll call) 'Zoom introverts'.
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