madison zuñiga – Sculpting words

Four recently published articles offer unique insight into how work in the writing center extends beyond traditional support for academic essays. During my years as a writing consultant, I’ve always been most interested in the alternative perspectives and strategies that can be applied within the writing center environment.

2. Robby Nadler’s “Understanding “Zoom fatigue”: Theorizing spatial dynamics as third skins in computer-mediated communication.”

Though Nadler’s work is reactive to the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the language it introduces and the issues it identifies persist in relevance and significance. Now, half a decade post-pandemic, synchronous online consultations (SOCs) have carved out a space for themselves in writing centers, going beyond safety protocols to address further concerns about accessibility, convenience, and relevance in a digital age. The continued ubiquity of computer-mediated communication (CMC) causes for Nadler’s exploration of “Zoom fatigue” or CMC exhaustion, to be both pertinent and important. 

Nadler discusses the exhaustion, physical and mental, experienced after participating in prolonged CMC, and clarifies that this phenomenon is not reliant upon audio or visual experiences. He also addresses the diminished impact and efficacy of SOC for writing center work, citing personal anecdote as well as conclusive reporting: 

Though the increased number of sessions means the Writing Center served more students this year, consultants who have worked these hours report that sessions conducted online are less productive and satisfying than sessions taking place in person. Specifically, several consultants report clients utilizing these online sessions seem more insistent and intent upon using the Writing Center as an editing service. (Rawlins, 2019) 

Nadler argues that the exhaustion results from the complex experience that occurs during CMC and within virtual contexts, resulting in a ‘third skin’ that does not necessarily align with the instincts we have as creatures “primed for” face-to-face interaction. For example, he writes: “If third skins flatten people visually, we must then realize that voice and appearance have very different effects on the human mind in a SOC than they do in FtF contexts—for while there is a human embedded in the third skin, the third skin is of human, not is human.” 

I find this advice to be immensely practical and crucial to contemporary writing center work. I would also cite this article as a generous consideration of the potential downsides of fully embracing SOC as an equal alternative to face-to-face consulting. This article is not an indictment of third skins, but rather offers a valuable theory on how they can be successfully acknowledged and integrated into writing center scenarios and the larger world. 

Nadler, R. (2020). Understanding “Zoom fatigue”: Theorizing spatial dynamics as third skins in computer-mediated communication. Computers and Composition. 58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102613.