Four years ago and almost overnight, the world went digital. As workers around the world were sent home as governments began issuing warnings about the pandemic, companies were forced to adopt new ways of working online.
Nowadays, the thought of joining another video conference fills us with dread, and recent years have seen multiple studies highlighting worker fatigue associated with endless use of digital tools to connect with colleagues.
However, a new study (admittedly on parrots) considers that chatting with friends, family and even colleagues through the screen could be good for our mental health.
Parrots love video calls (yes, we spelled that right)
A recent study by the University of Glasgow and Northeastern University, exploring how parrots interact with video chat technology and video recordings, found that the social creatures show a preference for real-time conversations with other parrots.
Conducted over six months, the small-scale study only involved nine parrots. However, the researchers found that the birds showed the same types of interactions as in real life when connecting with other people over the Internet.
From the parrots' perspective, they were taught to start video calls by ringing a bell and selecting a bird on a screen.
Parrot keepers also recorded the (less) positive impact of having the birds watch pre-recorded videos, emphasizing how greater human interaction can help workers feel more connected at work compared to receiving an email or instant message. .
For many workers, remote and hybrid work continues to offer the flexibility they want and need, and this study shows that video calls can be an effective way to socialize without having to travel to the office.
Another promising result of the study is that a more animal-centric Internet could help enrich the lives of animals in captivity, giving us a glimpse of a potentially lucrative market that could emerge in the years (or decades) to come.
