Covid-19 and Middle School
One thing we’ve figured out over the past six months is that online learning is exhausting. Beyond the fact that we’re stuck at home, we’re forced to spend most of our day sitting in the same chair, staring at the same small screen. We wrestle with buggy online software and try our best to get through written instructions, all while never going off camera or eating any snacks. It starts to feel like a punishment after a while. To add to the pain, we can’t see our friends and unwind between classes or after school. When you add to this the fact that many of us are dealing with distractions at home and even unreliable internet connections, it’s a wonder we’re able to learn anything at all. Our teachers help a lot, but then there’s only so much anyone can do.
First things first: Zoom fatigue is real. As it turns out, humans evolved talking to one another mostly in person. Now a lot of what we do when we talk face to face is handled unconsciously through body language, leaving our conscious brains to handle just some of the information. As Libby Sander and Oliver Bauman explain, “Meeting online increases our cognitive load, because several of its features take up a lot of conscious capacity.” Without body language, our conscious mind has to figure out a lot more about what’s going on. Is the other person serious or joking? Are they being ironic or sincere? Our brains have to work harder to figure all this out online, especially when the audio and video are cutting out.
Since early March, it’s also been nearly impossible to see my friends. I remember how it used to be: seeing friends in the hall between classes, joking around at lunch, hanging out after school and playing sports on the weekends. It all feels like it was years ago, but it was only January! We have online hangouts, but they’re lame. Even multiplayer video games have lost some of their appeal. Before the pandemic, I was allowed to run around outside for about two hours a day. My mom saw it as healthy exercise and part of my development, but I was just happy to play sports for 120 minutes a day. Since March, that run-wild time has vanished. Now I spend my day pretty much either in class or studying, with only short breaks for socially distanced outdoor activities. After spending a long day in front of a screen, a middle schooler just needs more.
Online schooling also opens up the thorny issue of distractions. Not everyone has siblings or pets at home, but there are always things to take your focus away from schoolwork. Even if we think reading ten pages on gravity is interesting, it’s hard to pay attention when the dog is barking, trucks are picking up the trash, leaf blowers are roaring, and parents are in the next room talking on the phone. I have a reasonably quiet place to work, but some students work in common areas at home, where there’s even more noise and lots of distractions. It’s one thing to do your homework at the kitchen table, but it’s another to try and attend all your classes at that table. And this all assumes that there’s no problem with the Internet connection (though of course there always problems).
With no end in sight for the pandemic, we’ll likely need to make the best of online schooling. More time in breakout rooms, and maybe allowing some private chatting would likely help. It’s hard to sit in front of a screen for hours and never ask your friends questions or even crack jokes, after all. Converting some of the lessons to short audio podcasts and limiting homework would also help get us away from our laptops. These are small improvements, but they could go a long way toward helping us survive what’s left of the strangest school year of our lives (so far).
Sander, Libby, and Oliver Bauman. “Zoom Fatigue is Real — Here's Why Video Calls Are So Draining.” Ted, 19 May 2020, ideas.ted.com/zoom-fatigue-is-real-heres-why-video-calls- are-so-draining/.
