Yes. I would have never thought, how draining zoom-sessions would be. It's incredibly tough to keep that listening face up and I definitely had days as a college student, where i just didn't have the energy to take part in it.
Normally you have short moments of being watched, where you can smile back and nod, while the rest of your time your face is relaxed. On zoom you feel watched all the time and your getting nothing back. Everybody is watching at their screen instead of their camera. Eye contact gives you energy.
I don't think there is a crazy conspiracy and we will have to do this forever. That seems like an unpopular and rare opinion on Hive, but I think we're doing fine. It's tough how slow vaccination is moving, but on the other hand, there are still doubts about Sputnik and Astra Zeneca. So in some way, it was too fast.
I hope we will be done with this by 2022. Wearings masks when you're sick, will probably stay with us for a long time. Asians have been doing this for years, while there was always a stigma to it in the west.
Lack of hugging, handshaking and eyecontact is definitely draining my mental health. But we humans are resilient. We will survive. :)