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When you are speaking from a remote location, audience members may be more likely to engage in multitasking. This practice, which refers to “juggling multiple tasks with and without technological devices,” is increasingly common in the workplace, in meetings, and on campus.20 For example, if you observe another student texting or checking Facebook during a classroom lecture, you are witnessing multitasking in action.
Although common courtesy should inhibit multitasking while you are delivering a speech face-to-face, it is easier for audience members to give in to these distractions when watching a speech on a screen. This is particularly true for workplace presentations when audience members are watching in their offices or cubicles, where they could be easily interrupted by a coworker.21 If you are not speaking on location, you also lose opportunities to use nonverbal strategies (such as moving closer to a person who is multitasking or changing the volume of your voice to gain attention).
From a remote location, there is also little if any opportunity to notice outside distractions. This is especially problematic during real-time presentations, when there is no chance for a replay. You will not hear a lawnmower or an airplane passing overhead and temporarily drowning out your voice. If you are speaking to audience members in different locations, you may not be aware that one viewer’s computer has crashed.