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Scientists are still puzzling out why in-person
communication is superior, Wheatley says, but her
lab has found some clues. The more eye contact peo-
ple have during a conversation, she says, the more in
sync they are with each other. The current state of
video calls, in which you stare at a tiny dot that is the
camera in your computer or phone to make it appear
that you’re looking someone in the eyes, cannot rep-
licate that experience. Connecting with others has
long been important to humans, she says—people
trust one another more when they share a communal
meal off the same plate instead of eating from indi-
vidual plates, or when they pass around a bottle of
wine rather than just drinking their own beverages.
Prolonged isolation in the most extreme circum-
stances, as with prisoners in solitary confinement,
is associated with a 29% risk of premature death, and
studies have shown that extended isolation also leads
to a decrease in the size of the hippocampus, which
is the part of the brain related to learning, memory
and spatial awareness. Some scientists estimate that
loneliness shortens a person’s life span by 15 years
and is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. “I
think it’s not just that everybody loves social inter-
action and parties and whatnot,” Wheatley says. “I
think it’s critically important to our mental and phys-
ical health.”
In one study, people were asked to perform a
stressful task: prepare a five-minute speech and
complete a verbal arithmetic task to perform in
front of an audience. Each participant received ei-
ther in- person support or support over text message.
People felt happier after completing the task if theyhad received in-person support. “It wasn’t that text-
ing was bad. It’s just that it was consistently not as
good as in-person support,” says Susan Holtzman,
a professor of psychology at the University of Brit-
ish Columbia and one of the study’s authors. People
benefit from visual cues like seeing a friend smile,
which makes them smile too, she says. They also read
audio cues; one study found that levels of a bonding
hormone were higher among mothers and daugh-
ters who talked on the phone than among those who
texted each other. Another study of young women
found that they bonded most closely through in-
person interaction, followed by video chat, audio
chat and instant messaging, in that order. Research
has also shown that being in the same room as a loved
one can ease physical pain.
“The thing that has to get solved on the tech side,”
says Wheatley, “is the tech needs to kind of disap-
pear so that you believe that you are in the room.”
But there are still big differences between people
working in the same room and people collaborating
remotely. For one thing, it’s much easier to multi task
when you’re working remotely—talking on the phone
while responding to a Slack message while looking up
recipes for dinner, for instance, and not giving anyone
your full attention. That behavior is hard to hide in
an on-site meeting, where your eyes are expected to
focus on colleagues or whoever is speaking. “When
we are face to face with someone, we typically have
that person’s undivided attention,” Holtzman says.
Some people also feel self-conscious when they
can see an image of themselves on the screen—a
common feature of most videoconferencing apps—^
Workers appear
as holograms
at a meeting
using Spatial’s
collaboration
softwarePREVIOUS SPREAD: QUALIO; THIS SPREAD: SPATIAL
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