University of Sheffield explores Zoom fatigue and digital attention crisis

A 3:30 a.m. email lands in the inbox long after the workday should end, a signal that attention, availability and performance are being measured well past normal hours.

At the University of Sheffield, the journalism program has been promoting and archiving work on media, communication and attention, including an AI in the Newsroom Symposium at The Wave, The University of Sheffield, 2 Whitham Road, Sheffield, S10 2AH.

Zoom fatigue is the symptom, not the whole story

The pandemic made video calls the public face of attention strain, but the underlying problem was already familiar: constant interruption, screen-based self-monitoring and the exhaustion of staying visibly engaged. BrainFacts published “This Is Why You Get Zoom Fatigue” on September 23, 2020, and National Geographic published “Zoom fatigue is taxing the brain. Here's why that happens.” on April 24, 2020. The American Psychological Association centered the topic in an episode titled “Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria Mark, PhD.”

Attention is not only shorter because people are careless; it is being split by systems that reward speed, responsiveness and the appearance of continuous presence. In the workplace, that can look like a video call on one screen, email on another and a phone buzzing in the background, with no real boundary between being online and being available.

Sheffield’s own communication habits show how inbox culture works

The University of Sheffield’s media infrastructure is a case study in how institutions now depend on immediate digital contact. Its Media and Public Relations Team lists mediateam@sheffield.ac.uk as a direct point of contact, and its out-of-hours line, +44 7725 213702, accepts phone calls only. It marks one of the few places where the institution draws a line between normal working access and after-hours escalation.

The same logic appears in the university’s online events FAQ. Once someone books, the joining link arrives 20 minutes before the session, alongside an email reminder to join the event. That means participation depends on a person staying alert to the inbox right up to the minute the event begins. For students, staff and journalists, email is not just a tool for communication. It is the gatekeeper for access, timing and belonging.

The Centre for the Study of Journalism and History maintains a news and events archive, and the University Library holds a comprehensive collection of contemporary and historical newspapers.

When one message becomes a campus-wide event

On December 27, 2020, a University of Sheffield politics student accidentally emailed 20,000 undergrads. The incident is memorable because it compresses the whole problem into one moment: a message meant for a small audience becomes a campus-wide interruption, and the sender’s slip becomes everyone else’s attention burden.

It shows how fragile trust can be when communication systems are too broad, too immediate and too easy to misuse. The same inbox that confirms attendance, delivers reminders and moves work forward can also amplify mistakes at scale.

Sheffield’s local media ecosystem reflects the same tension. Sheffield Press’s Facebook page identified it as a newspaper and showed about 1.1K followers and 14 following in the captured results.

Multitasking is not always the problem, but it needs rules

Binghamton University research in 2024 and 2026 argued that multicommunication during Zoom can be beneficial when attention and expectations are managed well. That is an important correction to the reflexive idea that any email opened during a meeting is proof of disengagement.

The real issue is whether the environment makes divided attention manageable or punishing. If a meeting expects instant camera-on performance, inbox monitoring and chat participation all at once, the result is not efficiency. It is cognitive overload. If, instead, the rules are clear and the task is simple enough to allow limited multitasking, people may actually work better.

Emails cannot simply replace human interaction, and a polished video interface does not guarantee trust, comprehension or care. The APA’s focus on shrinking attention spans and Gloria Mark’s research examined digital distraction.

What this means for work, learning and public health

The University of Sheffield’s School of Information, Journalism and Communication addresses media freedom, disinformation, information literacy, responsible use of AI and digital solutions to complex problems in healthcare. That is a public-health as well as a media story, because attention loss affects how people learn, coordinate care and absorb information under stress.

Sean Morley’s essay in Now Then Sheffield treats shrinking attention spans as part of a broader struggle to focus amid digital overload.