You are in a long
online meeting. Topics are
important, the discussion is
relevant, the team is
responsive and engaged, and
you spend most of the time
looking at yourself on the
Zoom screen? Your face looks
different and your overall
appearance is not the one you
are familiar with. You are not
alone. Worldwide reports show
that intensive use of video
conferencing tools has changed
the way we perceive ourselves,
creating for some a
significant impact on mental
health. This burden of our
visual appearance, being in
discrepancy with our mental
image, can push some people
into a form of a psychological
disorder named: Zoom
dysmorphia. The desire to
change their bodies or not to
appear in virtual meetings. ‘ Body
dysmorphic disorder’
(dysmorphia) is recognised in
medicine as an ‘obsessive idea
that some aspect of one's own
body part or appearance is
severely flawed and needs
hiding or fixing’ [Wikipedia]. Around
1 to 2.5% of the population is
suffering from this disorder,
and
reports show that the
overall change in our
day-to-day life will lead to more
people being dissatisfied
with their image. The
term was first used by the
Harvard Medical School
professor Dr Shadi Kourosh,
who noticed an increase
in appointment requests for
appearance-related issues
during the pandemic.
The explanation is
on the tech side. Your webcam
is not showing your true face
structure. The image is
distorted due to lens
curvature and picture
processing algorithms. That,
indeed, is not really you. The
differences are subtle but
there. You should take this
into account the next time you
are not satisfied with your
image on a Zoom call. Another
trick that can help is to turn
off your camera feed for
yourself (Self View). This
will show your video to
others, but not to you. [In
Zoom: press the three dots on
your video to open the menu.
Choose Hide Self View from the
menu to enable this feature.]
We all need a bit of rest from
ourselves.
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