Psychologist explains why you always watch yourself when on a video call

Whether chatting to your mates on FaceTime or sitting down for work meeting on Zoom, it seems there's nothing we love more than watching ourselves in the corner of the screen during a video call.

You may be doing it on purpose or you may have no idea you're doing it all but one thing's for sure - we've all done it at some point or another.

And, to help shine some light on the bizarre phenomenon, cyberpsychologist Andrew Franklin, has explained exactly why we love to check ourselves out when it comes to video calls.

Why do we love looking at ourselves on video calls? (Morsa Images / Getty Images)

You'll be happy to know that doing so doesn't actually make you a self-absorbed narcissist but, instead, may be an indicator of something totally different.

See it this way: when you're talking to someone in the real world, you only get to see the other people around you.

However, when you're on a video call, you're seeing both the person, or people, you're chatting to as well as your own face - something which only became a familiar concept in the last decade or so.

Naturally, whilst watching yourself, you may start to wonder how everyone else is seeing you - maybe you're worried about your hair looking slightly out of place, a stain on your top or even the messy clutter behind you.

That, plus the always awkward prolonged eye contact is pretty much a recipe for disaster for anyone already easily distracted, and can end up leaving you feeling a tad overwhelmed by it all.

We may be checking ourselves out on Zoom or FaceTime due to feeling overwhelmed. (Delmaine Donson / Getty Images)

So, to help alleviate all that exhaustion of 'looking present' and 'showing up', many people simply just forget about all the rest and simply make eyes with themselves the entire call - a habit I'm sure we've all picked up over the years from time to time.

Franklin tells Business Insider that fixating on yourself during a video chat is 'partially a way to cope with the stimulus overload of video chatting'.

"Given that we only have this finite screen in front of us, we are confident we can process everything that's in front of us," the expert explains.

So, for the more introverted peeps out there, the limited interaction of a video chat may actually come as quite the relief.

"If you concentrate on one spot, like we learned in public speaking, deliver what you have to say, mute your microphone and be done, it won't be so bad," Franklin added.

Well, that settles that then.