Are you suffering from digital fatigue?

Are you starting to suffer from digital fatigue? Is your diary full of TEAMS and Zoom invites?

In a world that has been turned upside down in the last year, I think it’s fair to say that we have all suffered a little fatigue at one time or another. Mostly we relate this to our personal tiredness, in having to juggle family pressures of home-schooling, work and our day-to-day lives which have been shrunk into a ‘bubble’. Sometimes the whole Groundhog day monotony of life can bring with it its own source of fatigue.

Take a break from screen time

For much of the working population, I suspect many of us are now also suffering from digital fatigue. I spend a good proportion of my life trying to encourage my own children away from the screen and into the great outdoors but then I have had to question my own activities and how much time I now spend in front of a screen.

Anyone who has an office-based job will, by the nature of the work involved, spend a good proportion of their lives in front of a screen. This was however, pre 2020 interjected with meeting of the face-to-face kind, traveling in the car or by train to meet clients, going to conferences, exhibitions. Rarely would a week go by when we were not ‘out and about’ and sometimes I would crave office time for the peace and the opportunity to catch up.

But by the wonders of modern technology it turns out that all the things that took me away from a screen can be done on a screen. If you would have asked me if it was possible to get lost while sitting at my desk pre 2020 I would have laughed, but like many of us I have turned up at a Zoom meeting only to find everyone else is on Google Meets….

Have we met?

One aspect of digital fatigue that I had not anticipated is that I now have to question whether I have met someone in person or just via the joys of Zoom, Teams or the multitude of other digital connection platforms. And that makes me tired, tired of the screen, tired of digital meetings and virtual exhibitions and like all of us, longing for a bit more real and a bit less digital.

Keep it real

So I am looking forward to a future stuck in a taxi in the middle of London cursing the fact we didn’t take the tube because now we have missed our train. Let us never moan again about being parked on the M6 and why we have to allow an extra two hours for a journey that’s only supposed to take one. And mostly let us remember the fun that can be had just being a bit more real. 

Get digital right

During 2021, all business-to-business companies will be focusing on digital marketing – websites, email marketing and digital events. If you are thinking of hosting a webinar or other digital event, take a look at our 7 top tips to host a successful webinar article.