Stop looking at yourself (the “Zoom Effect”)

Compared to a normal phone call, the purpose of a video call is to enrich the communication experience. When we can see people’s facial expressions, we get more information and form deeper connections. Except, in most video calls, people just look at themselves the whole time. Which defeats the purpose. 

I’m dubbing this the “Zoom Effect.” When experiences that could be enriching and meaningful are ruined by our self-conscious nature, that’s the Zoom Effect. 

We see this a lot with creativity and social media. The act of creating art, recording a video about it, then posting it is inherently meaningful. It’s our desire to be famous that steals the meaning. Consider the act of creating art. It’s a rich personal experience. Think about what it takes to record a video about your work. Making it accessible for viewers is its own interesting challenge. Then there’s the act of sharing your work—that’s generous and brave. When we do all that but get no views, we get self-conscious. We think the fact that we haven’t gone viral says something about the rich experience we just had. Maybe it wasn’t so meaningful after all. But this is only the Zoom Effect. 

Don’t let your self-conscious nature pull the rug of meaning out from under your experiences.