The Performative and Interpretive Labour of Videoconferencing: Findings from a Literature Review on \u27Zoom\u27 Fatigue

Videoconferencing fatigue or ‘Zoom’ fatigue has emerged as a distinct and pressing phenomenon in light of rapid videoconferencing adoption during and after the COVID- 19 pandemic. As part of an ongoing broader literature review project, we find that extant literature primarily conceptualises videoconferencing fatigue as an error that needs to be detected and corrected based on techniques derived from medical, psychological, technological and media theories. However, we observe that videoconferencing is also a work activity, and thus consider what additional insights on videoconferencing fatigue could be obtained by deconstructing videoconferencing according to the labour that is involved in videoconferencing. Based on thematic analysis of the extant literature, we thus develop a perspective on videoconferencing in relation to the performative and interpretive labour that videoconferencing entails. This new way of thinking about videoconferencing fatigue, as labour cost, enables us to offer implications for theory and practice, and comment on directions for future research