这就是线上云会议如此令人疲惫的原因

这就是线上云会议如此令人疲惫的原因

If you're feeling a little tired these days, you're hardly alone. The various fatigues afflicting humanity just keep piling up. There's climate change fatigue. There's compassion fatigue. And let's not forget good old-fashioned fatigue-fatigue.

如果你最近感到有点累，你并不是一个人。折磨着人类的各种疲惫只会越来越多。还有对气候变化的厌倦。有疲劳情绪。我们不要忘记传统的疲劳。

It seems we live in a world of a thousand sighs and sorrows.

我们似乎生活在一个充满叹息和悲伤的世界。

Interacting with enlarged human faces on a screen can throw the brain for a loop. (Photo: Girts Ragelis/Shutterstock.com)

And just when you thought we couldn't possibly find the time to be fatigued about anything else, along comes something fresh to wear us down: Zoom fatigue.

就在你认为我们不可能有时间对其他事情感到疲劳的时候，一些新鲜的东西出现了:云会议疲劳。

If you haven't heard of Zoom, it may not be because you're living under a rock. But because there's no WIFI under that rock. These days, as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps millions of people at home, just about anyone with internet access is using the video conferencing platform to stay connected. It's remarkably easy to use — just dial into a Zoom room and hello mom.

如果你没有听说过云会议，那可能不是因为你生活在“石头”下。而是因为那块石头下面没有WIFI。如今，新冠肺炎疫情让数百万人足不出户，几乎所有能上网的人都在使用视频会议平台保持联系。它使用起来非常简单——只需进入一个视频平台，然后就可以看到对方了。

If you're willing to pay for it, you can cram as many as 500 people into a Zoom room. It's the perfect way for bosses to keep bossing, even as millions of employees work from home.

如果你愿意付钱，你可以把500人塞进一个会议室。这是老板们继续发号施令的完美方式，即使数百万员工在家工作。

At the very least, the platform allows for visual check-ups on employees: Is that a fresh pillow wrinkle on your cheek? Is that a bottle of rye on your bed stand?

至少，这个平台允许对员工进行视觉检查:你的脸颊上是不是有一条枕痕?你床头柜上有一瓶黑麦威士忌吗?

It can be fun too, with an ever-expanding range of fake backgrounds from tropical beaches to deep space. Heck you can even get married on Zoom. So why should we ever get tired of all the fun, frolic and supervision from our corporate overseers — especially when there happens to be a pandemic making human connections incredibly hard to come by?

它也可以很有趣，从热带海滩到太空深处，有越来越多的假背景。你甚至可以在云会议上结婚。那么，我们为什么要厌倦企业监管者的所有乐趣、嬉闹和监督——尤其是当一场大流行让人际关系变得难以维系的时候?

To put it simply: Your face has to work incredibly hard when there's a camera on it. Also, we probably take for granted the sheer weirdness of interacting virtually with humans.

简单地说:当你的脸上有摄像头的时候，你的脸必须非常努力地工作。此外，我们可能认为与人类进行虚拟互动是理所当然的。

Video conferencing is extremely labor-intensive for your face. (Photo: Just dance/Shutterstock)

"With your friends, you can be more brash and say 'I'm going now,' " IT consultant Mark Ioannou tells the Wall Street Journal. "But work calls can go on, and no one wants to be the one to close them. Everyone's looking at each other, like, uh it's a bit awkward."

IT顾问马克·约安努在接受《华尔街日报》采访时表示:“和朋友在一起时，你可以表现得更加傲慢，说‘我现在要走了’。但工作电话可以一直打下去，没人想成为那个挂断电话的人。每个人都看着对方，好像，呃，有点尴尬。”

And when everyone somehow manages to agree that it's finally time to end that meeting, even more awkwardness ensues. People literally run for the exit. Who wants to be the last person in the meeting room — the one who can't find the icon in the BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER?

当每个人都同意会议终于该结束时，更尴尬的事情发生了。人们真的会跑向出口。谁想成为会议室里的最后一个人——一个找不到右下角图标的人?

"Everyone's desperately looking for the leave-meeting button," Rob Ralston of the University of Edinburgh, tells the Wall Street Journal.

爱丁堡大学的罗布•拉尔斯顿在接受《华尔街日报》采访时表示:“每个人都在拼命地寻找‘离开会议’按钮。”

"There's a mad scramble not to be the last person on the call with the host."

“为了不成为最后一个退出主人电话的人，大家争得不可开交。”

Does all of that sound a tad exhausting to you? Don't even think about taking a nap. Because there's probably another Zoom meeting scheduled in half an hour — and you definitely don't want to show up with a pillow imprint on your face.

所有这些听起来是不是有点累人?想都别想睡午觉。因为半小时后可能还有另一个云会议——你肯定不想脸上有枕头印。