“…In a separate video call where he went on a ‘date’ (said while using air quotes), he explained how the self‐view feature attuned him to his posture and fuelled ‘this constant self‐criticism, like micro‐managing of myself, which prevented me from actually relaxing and being … being present’. These experiences speak to what Autumm Caines (2020) terms the ‘Zoom Gaze’—the naturalisation of the power dynamics underpinning certain ways of seeing and being seen in video calls. In this vein, users of video call platforms can come to embody the political relations embedded within the technical affordances of video call platforms (e.g., the capacity to self‐surveil afforded by the self‐view feature).…”
Section: Habits Of Online Video Callsmentioning
confidence: 89%
“…I feel like I've almost taken on a sort of persona, of being the fun one or like trying to be more just like, just casual … So, in a way it's kind of been liberating in the sense that like, I feel kind of like more comfortable to be myself … and not have this like super serious formal persona.Ava's experience here alludes to what geographer David Bissell (2014) has described as habit's immanent potential for disruption, such that habitual ways of enacting selfhood are subject to transformation through our encounters with video call technology. Further, Ava (Interview February 2022) demonstrates how an increased awareness of how one is seen in a video calls does not always lead to ‘alienation’ from one's ‘authentic’ self, as Caines (2020) argues, but can also facilitate more ‘comfortable’ and ‘liberating’ constructions of subjectivity. Indeed, what the concept of habits leaves us with is the notion that the self is not a stable, ‘unchanging, underlying entity’ (Carlisle, 2006, p. 23), but rather something that is always in the process of becoming, continuing to unfold and evolve through the emergent relations between the subject and its environment.…”
The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has brought profound change to many areas of our lives, and perhaps most of all in terms of how we communicate. A testament to our vital need for social connection, millions of people have sought to shed the physical constraints of isolation and restricted mobility by using online video calling to reaffirm relations with friends, colleagues and wider communities. Drawing on qualitative in‐depth interviews with users of online video call platforms, this paper explores the social and subjective impacts of video calling, and how they are transforming habitual modes of relating to ourselves and others. The paper argues that grasping the impact of such technological encounters requires new modes of thinking attuned to the less conscious and more material processes though which technologies come to shape how we think and behave. In theorising these unconscious and non‐representational potentials, the paper engages with Félix Ravaisson's innovative theorisation of habit. In contrast to those thinkers who would reduce habit to the unthinking and automatic repetition of the same, we explore how Ravaisson's theorisation of habit offers a dynamic ontology for understanding how bodies change and how change comes to be registered in bodies through encounters with technology. We argue that this conceptualisation of habit opens a powerful way of thinking about how the repeated use of online video calls has become bound with the production of new habits of attention, transforming the embodied ways in which we perceive and relate to our own subjectivities, other people, and the spaces in which we live and work.
“…In a separate video call where he went on a ‘date’ (said while using air quotes), he explained how the self‐view feature attuned him to his posture and fuelled ‘this constant self‐criticism, like micro‐managing of myself, which prevented me from actually relaxing and being … being present’. These experiences speak to what Autumm Caines (2020) terms the ‘Zoom Gaze’—the naturalisation of the power dynamics underpinning certain ways of seeing and being seen in video calls. In this vein, users of video call platforms can come to embody the political relations embedded within the technical affordances of video call platforms (e.g., the capacity to self‐surveil afforded by the self‐view feature).…”
Section: Habits Of Online Video Callsmentioning
confidence: 89%
“…I feel like I've almost taken on a sort of persona, of being the fun one or like trying to be more just like, just casual … So, in a way it's kind of been liberating in the sense that like, I feel kind of like more comfortable to be myself … and not have this like super serious formal persona.Ava's experience here alludes to what geographer David Bissell (2014) has described as habit's immanent potential for disruption, such that habitual ways of enacting selfhood are subject to transformation through our encounters with video call technology. Further, Ava (Interview February 2022) demonstrates how an increased awareness of how one is seen in a video calls does not always lead to ‘alienation’ from one's ‘authentic’ self, as Caines (2020) argues, but can also facilitate more ‘comfortable’ and ‘liberating’ constructions of subjectivity. Indeed, what the concept of habits leaves us with is the notion that the self is not a stable, ‘unchanging, underlying entity’ (Carlisle, 2006, p. 23), but rather something that is always in the process of becoming, continuing to unfold and evolve through the emergent relations between the subject and its environment.…”
The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has brought profound change to many areas of our lives, and perhaps most of all in terms of how we communicate. A testament to our vital need for social connection, millions of people have sought to shed the physical constraints of isolation and restricted mobility by using online video calling to reaffirm relations with friends, colleagues and wider communities. Drawing on qualitative in‐depth interviews with users of online video call platforms, this paper explores the social and subjective impacts of video calling, and how they are transforming habitual modes of relating to ourselves and others. The paper argues that grasping the impact of such technological encounters requires new modes of thinking attuned to the less conscious and more material processes though which technologies come to shape how we think and behave. In theorising these unconscious and non‐representational potentials, the paper engages with Félix Ravaisson's innovative theorisation of habit. In contrast to those thinkers who would reduce habit to the unthinking and automatic repetition of the same, we explore how Ravaisson's theorisation of habit offers a dynamic ontology for understanding how bodies change and how change comes to be registered in bodies through encounters with technology. We argue that this conceptualisation of habit opens a powerful way of thinking about how the repeated use of online video calls has become bound with the production of new habits of attention, transforming the embodied ways in which we perceive and relate to our own subjectivities, other people, and the spaces in which we live and work.
“…However, Zoom also has several drawbacks. It forces users to confront their own visibility via the "self-view" feature, which increases distraction (Caines, 2020a) and creates "mirror anxiety" -an increased feeling of self-consciousness (Fauville et al, 2021). Zoom users see one another up close in a way that makes it feel like they are being watched -this is referred to as "Zoom gaze" (Caines, 2020b).…”
Section: Zoommentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It forces users to confront their own visibility via the "self-view" feature, which increases distraction (Caines, 2020a) and creates "mirror anxiety" -an increased feeling of self-consciousness (Fauville et al, 2021). Zoom users see one another up close in a way that makes it feel like they are being watched -this is referred to as "Zoom gaze" (Caines, 2020b). Zoom can cause an increased sense of exhaustion compared to being in person (Bailenson, 2021) and this has been found to disproportionately affect women (Fauville et al, 2021).…”
Section: Zoommentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Videoconferencing on Zoom limits mobility since users have to stay within a certain area in order to be seen on camera (Bailenson, 2021). Additionally, since Zoom requires a high-speed, consistent Internet connection, the use of this tool can increase the digital divide for communities and individuals that do not have access to broadband Internet (Boerngen & Rickard, 2021) and it might lead teachers to privilege students who have faster bandwidth, nicer cameras and better microphones (Caines, 2020a). While the research on Zoom is growing, recent studies regarding the use of Zoom as a video conferencing tool for synchronous online learning have tended to focus on student and faculty attitudes toward Zoom (Serhan, 2020;Vandenberg & Magnuson, 2021), Zoom fatigue (Peper et al, 2021) and comparing Zoom to other video conferencing platforms (Correia et al, 2020).…”
In this paper, we offer a holistic look at undergraduate and graduate students' experiences with using cameras for synchronous online learning via Zoom. Analysis of the data using the American Psychological Association's learner-centered psychological principles revealed that social, cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective, and individual difference factors influenced student camera use and the level of influence of each of these factors varied from student to student, time to time, and space to space within a class. Findings suggest that there is a multifaceted, dynamic relationship between the student, video conferencing technology, and instructor's pedagogical actions that shapes camera use. Based on the findings, we offer suggestions for online synchronous course design, teaching, and research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
