There’s a very simple solution to combating video call burnout

Zoom burnout, they’re calling it.

We’ve probably all experienced it by now, that feeling of exhaustion and of having Zoomed too far, joined one two many “webinars”, Whatsapped a bit too much with the family, argued over the quiz results, and drank far too much “at” far too many friends on House Party.

You’ve logged in and fiddled with mic and cam settings until everyone in the video-chat can see and hear you. You’ve waited, sometimes minutes, for the host to show up and let you all in. You’ve put up with the audio feedback issues when two of you are in the same room and in the same chat.

You’ve changed your background to the blue planet and to the Golden Gate Bridge, and the palm trees on the beach. You’ve had the Aurora whisping away behind you as your face mysteriously modulates from visible to invisible and back again like Alice’s Cheshire Cat. You’ve even downloaded all those empty TV studio set photos from the BBC. You’ve virtually sat in Noel’s chair from Multicoloured Swap Shop, you’ve pondered which era Doctor Who that particular TARDIS background is [Peter Davidson] and one of your best friends hopped aboard The Liberator and shouted Avon calling in the most camp voice possible. You’ve searched to see if there is a Tomorrow People background, so you might chat with Tim in the frame and jaunt about a bit.

Then there’s the issue of which app to actually use for the best experience. Zoom is okay, but it sometimes gets overloaded and it’s definitely overloaded with tabloid scaremongering so some friends won’t use it. You’ve tried to persuade others to opt for yet another app or website. “This one’s better, it’s faster, there’s no privacy or issues [there are always privacy and security issues].

There’s even the vague possibility that we might all be able to sync up and sing or play instruments together across the ether because this new app has much lower sound delay, latency, [it doesn’t, none of them have a sufficiently low delay to let musicians perform together online].

Your eyes are feeling blurry, you’re thinking…it’s the staring at the screen for so long, that’s why you feel so tired. But, we’ve all been staring at screens interminably for years, it’s not that. It’s something else. Maybe it’s the needing to be constantly “on”. Constantly concentrating on all those faces staring slightly askew in their blue reflected haze.

It’s neither of those things.

Maybe it’s the lack of body language cues. It’s hard to converse and fully engage without seeing someone’s expressive hands and shoulder shrugs. But, as we’re all sitting on our hands to stop us touching our faces anyway, those cues are always off-limits. But, it’s not that either. We’ve managed on the good-old telephone with no video for decades with no real problems.

So, what is it, why are we all feeling burned out and a little melancholic, miserable even, after all this facetime zooming by? We should be happy that despite the global pandemic those of us with the tech can still cling to each other, sticking together while we’re apart, as it were. Very unfortunate for those in places with no tech…for so many reasons.

Could it be that every time we fire up those webcams and tweak that background, for another online chat that we are simply mourning the loss of what we had? The meeting up in the real world, the pubs, the clubs, the musical rehearsals, the live theatre and music festivals, the art galleries and museums, the beauty spots, the far-flung holidays, the freedom? The freedom from worry about catching or spreading a lethal pathogen? I think so.

Zoom burnout isn’t tiredness. It isn’t the strain of feeling one’s eyes going square like we were warned about back in the days of proper television with just three channels. It isn’t irritation at the silly backgrounds and the clamouring, clanging sounds of everyone trying to talk at once.

It’s grief.

It’s bereavement.

It’s mourning.

For the life we’ve lost…

…for now.

Fen Edge Un-Events

We live on the Fen Edge patch, the south side of the Cambridgeshire Fens. Pre-corona I ran an events page on Facebook, FEE – Fen Edge Events. Sharing gigs, shows, fairs, events, and other stuff of interest to the locals.

In the midst of corona, I have repurposed the page for quarantine times, social distancing, and self-isolation as the Fen Edge Un-Events page and am sharing virtual cinema clubs, isolation gigs, online quizzes, Zoom pub crawls etc.

Museums and galleries, zoos, cathedrals, and other places of interest, even local gardening enthusiasts, offering virtual tours and access to webcams for free.

Tips and tricks for homeschooling, drawing and sketching techniques, maths tutorials, quizzes for adults and children, free books (electronic and audio), magazines (many free online if you have a library card).

Virtual cinema, book clubs, shared music, DJing, live streaming gigs (classic, rock, pop etc) and shows (comedy, theatrical, musical, opera, ballet).

Recordings of local shows and gigs, including CTW pantos.

Home workouts.

Music lessons and tutorials.

Science stuff, such as astronomy and observing info, birdwatching, and more. Also, citizen science projects you can join from home.

Suggestions for sharing images such as beaches, silent cities, teddy bears, rainbows, jokes.

Live (pub) quiz nights.

There will also be occasional public service announcements (PSAs), about the disease, about resources and utilities, grants for the vulnerable, wellness and mental health advice.

STAY HOME, STAY EDUTAINED, STAY WELL – We will get through this together, apart!

Join here https://www.facebook.com/groups/cottenham

Science on TikTok

UPDATE: Well, it was worth a try…some of the vids I posted had a few hundred views and a handful of likes, one got 1500+ views and a few dozen likes. But the vast majority of the stuff on there is pointless nonsense and there seems to be little engagement to be frank. Even attempting to find STEM people has not really worked so far. I am going to leave it to brew on the backburner for a while over the Christmas period and come back to it next month.

You may have heard about TikTok, it’s a fairly new video platform (actually, it’s ancient, founded in September 2016!). Rumour has it that’s mostly youngster doing silly stunts and pranking each other and if it’s not that then its craftspeople and builders and decorators showing off their skills in plastering, bricklaying, tree-felling, carving, plastering, and other stuff. There’s been some 15-second activism that hit the headlines recently and seems to be growing…

I registered with the app soon after it launched, but never used it at the time. Well, as I mentioned here a few days ago I was inspired by engineer-inventor Dr Lucy Rogers to take a closer look as I imagined that there could be potential for engaging and perhaps even inspiring some of those youngsters with some sciencey videos.

My early postings are a bit eclectic, some music, some moths, a stylish stile, silly snowy filters, and others bits & bobs. Some seem to have been viewed several hundred times and liked by a few dozen users; others don’t seem to have hit the target at all.

Anyway, as I did with Twitter more than a decade ago, I thought it might be nice to start compiling a list of STEM people active on TikTok and maybe even encourage a few who aren’t but who have content that they share on other social media to take a look. So, I’ve made a start and will add anyone who is in STEM and sharing experiments, demos, and other pertinent stuff, just let me have your handle and I’ll take a look.

@sciencebase
@DrLucyRogers
@RuthAmos
@RobIves
@DavidDobrik
@ChemTeacherPhil
@Rahul
@InstituteofHumanAnatomy
@TheJKGamer1
@SarahMackAttack
@lab_shenanigans
@TheTikTokScientist

Tik Tok, TikTok, what you waitin’, what you waitin’ for?

My friend Dr Lucy Rogers tweeted something she’d posted on Tik Tok, a short clip of an English oak in its autumnal finery. Very nice I thought…

…more fool me. Ten minutes later I had re-registered on Tik Tok and was scrolling through vids like a man possessed. If Youtube was the previous tech generation’s cocaine, then Tik Tok is basically crack. If it’s not crack cocaine to Youtube’s cocaine, then it’s definitely its crystal to Vimeo’s meth, or perhaps it’s just “tirami” to Vine’s “su”.

Needless to say I have now posted a few snippets to test the water, got a few likes already and a tiny clutch of followers including Dr Lucy Rogers.

So far, I’ve posted a Fieldfare feeding in our garden during the Beast from the East weather period, a folk band in a Greek Taverna, the rotating propellers of an aeroplane on which we flew in September, one of us driving over the Tyne Bridge, and am just about to put up a video of our dog running in the snow. Exciting stuff, huh? What a time to be alive! Oh, yes, I’m @sciencebase as you’d probably expect.

UPDATE: Lucy highlighted a couple of other TikTokers in our realm: RuthAmos and RobIves. I will add to the list as new STEM people turn up.

Cutting back on emoji

For a while back there I had emoji on my twitter profile splitting it to the seams. I’ve trimmed them back again now, but for posterity, here’s how it was. Thanks to @bef_xoxo for asking why I had so many. She is part of the team running NUSU Freshers at NCL this year.

You might also note that I have only about 42500 followers as of July 2019. Not two or three years ago that number as closer to 54000. Ah well, general attrition of users leaving and unfollowing over time and a slower rate of uptake by new followers. If you want to follow the new emojically abbreviated @sciencebase, that’s the handle, as ever.

Twitter gender

For a while back there, I had more than 54,000 followers on Twitter, for what that’s worth. Current number after some losses over the last couple of years through general attrition, spam and bot clearouts etc, now means my follower count is down to about 43,000 followers. I did an analysis of declared pronouns, bio details and name on a sample of 2,000 of the most recently active based on 200 tweets in my timeline (using a freely available tool called proporti.onl)

The breakdown of followers is as follows: 32% male, 16% female, 52% not known.

The proportions are different for the people I myself follow. I don’t tend to keep following people who don’t follow me and I limit the total number to 2000, at the moment it’s just under 1800 that I follow.

44% male, 26% female, 30 not known

 

Connect with David Bradley of Sciencebase

rsstwitterfacebookinstagram

The four main online outlets for David Bradley and Sciencebase updates are the Sciencebase website and blog, Facebook, Mastodon, Twitter, and Instagram. Most updates covering my science and stuff will appear in those places.

You can also find me as “sciencebase” on almost all other social media, this a link of this form, swapping out the word social for substack, medium, bandcamp, soundcloud, pixelfed, linkedin or whatever:

https://sciencebase.com/social

Google doodle celebrates vitamin C discoverer

Google doodle celebrates vitamin C discoverer – Today, Google celebrates the birthday of Hungarian physiologist Albert von Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt (September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986) who discovered vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle. He was awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was also active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War II and entered Hungarian politics after the war.

New Facebook friends and blogging advice

If you’ve been on Facebook for any length of time you will have had friend requests from people you don’t know. That’s fine. Often they’re just spammers. Sometimes, they’re users with whom you might have a few friends in common. If paths haven’t crossed I usually redirect requests to the Sciencebase Facebook page instead of automatically accepting the request. Occasionally, the new wouldbe friend turns out already to “like” the page, says so and starts a conversation. Also fine. Half proves they’re not some kind of bot. Virtual friendships can spring from such occurrences. It’s what this social media lark is all about, right?

Indian medical blogger Pranab Chatterjee who runs Scepticemia, sent me a friend request and I went through the process described above and he pointed out that he already liked the fan page, was surprised to learn I also run Sciencetext and wondered how I manage to juggle so many words at once. He also thought that I might be able to offer him some advice on boosting visitors to his blog as he felt like it had reached a plateau. He wanted the recipe for my secret sauce of success…well I don’t have one, I just work (probably too) hard and hope for the best. So, I turned the tables on Pranab and asked him what I could do to improve my blog.

He was a little taken aback, but offered some encouraging words about the liking the clean look of the blogs and putting in a request for more hardcore medical posts, he’s a doctor, hence the interest. I do write about medical matters, but I will probably leave the hardcore stuff to the hardcore medical bloggers (and I don’t mean Dr G)

Anyway, if there is a recipe for blogging success, other than going black hat it has to be plenty of persistence a wadge of hard work, and perhaps a very strong background in the subject on which you’re blogging coupled with experience in the wider journalism industry and/or experience in science (or other field) and the conference circuit. I think enjoying writing probably helps as does have an analytical approach. Being active in social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter seems to help raise one’s profile although is not really reflected in traffic, in my experience (a few hundred to a thousands new visits extra each week, perhaps) and the occasional spike. Others might perceive that differently, but more than 80% of Sciencebase traffic is still search engine derived. Nevertheless, make sure every new blog post is as perfect and precise as you can, and then tell your Facebook followers, twitter crowd about it. It’s also always worth doing a spot of whitehat SEO, just to improve search traffic benefit.

That’s just a few, almost random thoughts. Bottom line is: if you enjoy writing, you probably should have a blog. If you enjoy people you probably should make friends.