“Turn Your Camera On” — Connection, Privacy and the Right to Choose

A team video call. Samuel is presenting and sees a black tile instead of Maja’s face.

— Maja, could you turn your camera on? It’s hard to talk to a black square.
— Sure.

A few minutes later, Maja turns it off again.

— Camera again?
— I can focus better on what you’re saying when it’s off.

Samuel needs faces to guide the conversation. Maja needs fewer visual demands to participate well.

What really happened

Samuel is leading the conversation, and when Maja’s camera is off he loses information he normally relies on: he cannot see her facial reactions, judge whether the pace is working, or tell whether she wants to speak. For him, the camera increases contact. Maja experiences a different cost. When she can see herself, Samuel, and the rest of the screen at the same time, some of her attention shifts to monitoring her own image and how she appears. She may therefore be more visible while being less focused on the content. This is not a conflict between a social person and an antisocial one. It is a conflict between two functions of video: feedback for the speaker and an additional attention demand for the participant.

What the research says

Researchers have argued that video meetings combine several unusual demands: close-up eye contact, constant self-view, restricted movement, and increased attention to nonverbal cues — a framework sometimes described as nonverbal overload (Bailenson, 2021). An important caveat is that this paper was primarily theoretical rather than proof that every proposed mechanism affects everyone in the same way. A later experiment using EEG measures with 32 participants found a higher fatigue indicator when people could see their own image than when self-view was hidden (Xu et al., 2024). The small sample does not support a universal rule, but it does reinforce a simple point: seeing yourself continuously can be a real additional burden rather than mere preference or fussiness.

How to handle it

Instead of a blanket “camera always on” rule, define what video is supposed to achieve in a particular meeting. During a conversation that depends on reactions, a presentation, or relationship-building, cameras may help. During a long working session, they may not need to be on continuously. Another simple option is to keep the camera on while hiding self-view: Samuel still sees Maja, while Maja no longer has to watch herself. The general rule is: do not ask only whether the camera is on; ask what function it serves and what attentional cost it creates for the person on the other side.

How Empatyzer and Em can help

Empatyzer should not guess from a profile whether someone “likes cameras.” It can, however, show Samuel and Maja that they differ in how they draw information from social contact, how much visible reaction they need, and how comfortable they are with constant expression. Before the next meeting, Em can suggest a better question than “turn your camera on”: “I need some signal that you’re following — what works for you: camera, chat reactions, or short verbal check-ins?” Maja can explain that camera-off improves her focus instead of leaving Samuel with a blank space he has to interpret. At team level, Empatyzer can help establish several equivalent ways of signaling presence. Micro-lessons teach people to distinguish the need for contact from one particular symbol of contact.