‘You’re still on mute’. A study of video conferencing fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic from a technostress perspective

The global social restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of video conferencing for activities such as work, study, and personal relationships. Alongside its many benefits, video conferencing can also have adverse effects on users. Video conferencing fatigue is a commonly cited problem, especially for those individuals forced by COVID-19 to adopt the technology. Drawing from the technostress perspective, this paper examines the causes and consequences of VCF during a pandemic situation. A research model is developed and tested quantitively with data collected from 429 users of common video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Teams, and WebEx. The results suggest the relationship between video conferencing stressors and the outcomes of user satisfaction and continuance intentions, are mediated by video conferencing fatigue. In addition, the strengths of these relationships vary depending on whether video conferencing is mainly used for work, study, or social purposes.