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.25 For example, if you observe another student texting or checking Facebook during a classroom lecture, you are witnessing multitasking in action.

When you are delivering a speech face-to-face, common courtesy should discourage listeners from multitasking, but when audience members are watching you on a screen, it is easier for them to give in to distractions around them. This is particularly true for workplace presentations when audience members are watching in their offices or cubicles and can easily be interrupted by a coworker.26 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, you will have few opportunities to notice things that might be distracting your listeners. This is especially problematic during real-time presentations, when listeners can’t immediately replay what they might have missed. You will not hear a lawn mower 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.