One in three give thumbs up to virtual meetings
Platforms like Zoom, Skype prove popular
OTTAWA • In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly three out of four Canadians say virtual conferencing tools are an “excellent” alternative to interacting with people in person.
From the sound of it, in-person meetings and events may still be a long way off for many Canadians.
According to a survey produced by Leger Opinion (LEO) for the Association for Canadian Studies (ASC), 72 per cent of Canadians agreed with the statement that video conferencing is an excellent alternative to interacting with people.
Asked how they feel about the experience of video conferencing, a staggering 84 per cent of Canadian — including 94 per cent of Quebecers — responded “positive.”
Those numbers are surprising to ASC president Jack Jedwab in a time when the phenomenon of “Zoom fatigue” — the impression of feeling overly drained after a period of meeting over a video conferencing tool such as Zoom — is increasingly documented.
“I didn’t expect that at all actually. Because, anecdotally, you hear from a lot of people saying they miss interactions with people or miss seeing people to the extent they did before the pandemic. But I think we’ve become accustomed to this idea of communication through video conferencing,” Jedwab said in an interview.
“I don’t feel like I’m seeing Zoom fatigue in this data,” he said. “I think we’re going to see this large group, that has become accustomed to using headsets along with video conferencing, maintain the habit.”
The survey, which polled 1,517 adult Canadians randomly recruited from LEO’S online panel between July 24 and 26, aimed to see how much Canadians are using video conferencing tools like Zoom or Skype during the pandemic, as well as their feelings about the experience.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year, most governments around the world exhorted their citizens to self-isolate at home as much as possible and avoid any unnecessary contact with others.
Since then, the use of video conferencing platforms has exploded. Zoom saw its daily number of meeting participants jump from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million in April. A competing platform, Microsoft Teams, recorded a 70 per cent rise in daily active users between March and April.
Nearly half (49 per cent) of Canadians said they used video conferencing tools more than they used to before the pandemic, whereas only 16 per cent said they used them just as often or less.
Another 34 per cent declared they don’t use video conferencing platforms at all, but Jedwab says age is a significant factor in determining if one’s use of the tools increased or not during the pandemic.
For example, 70 per cent of Zoomers — a nickname given to people born in the late 1990s and that was until now unrelated to the platform Zoom — reported an increased use of tools like Teams since the beginning of the pandemic.
“The baby Zoomers are using these platforms to a much more greater extent than the baby boomers,” who were by far the most likely to never use video conferencing tools, Jedwab explained. “We’re actually creating a generation who will grow up interacting on Zoom.”
Age, but also concern about catching COVID-19, is also a significant factor when it comes to the reason for using a platform like Zoom, as well as the time spent video conferencing in a day.
Whereas work was the most common use for Canadians aged between 35 and 44 years old, personal reasons such as staying in touch with friends or family was the main driver for a majority of Canadian users over the age of 55.
Younger Canadians are also more likely to spend more time on video calls. For example, 57 per cent of adults under 25 said they spend over one hour per day on video conference platforms, compared to 26 per cent of respondents between 45 and 54 years old.
One in 20 (5 per cent) of young adults said they spend six hours or more on video calls, though Jedwab suspects online schooling may be the main reason.
Unsurprisingly, the survey data also shows a strong correlation between anxiety about catching COVID-19 and the use of video conferencing tools.