How Are Teens Affected by Coronavirus Lockdowns?
During the original Coronavirus lockdown in last March, many teens were affected by this drastic change of life. They went from going to school everyday with friends and living their normal lives to the rapid closing of schools and businesses around the country. With no way of knowing when everything will open up again. There are many teens who really felt the brunt of having to stay home all the time, to the ones who are loving every minute of it.
According to the article Teens in Covid Isolation out of 3,300 high schoolers, nearly one-third reported feeling unhappy or depressed in recent months. It can be hard to identify if a teenager is struggling internally with the amount of responsibilities they have and the social groups they are so used to having.
A lot of adults may think that life is easy since school is remote and that teens should be doing more, but as a nation we should try to look out for our teenagers.
Harborfields High School junior, Brianna Chavez, amplifies this suggestion by saying, “I’m trying to balance working and doing online school and it has taken a huge toll on me. I’m always anxious with the amount of work that I have due, and also having my personal responsibilities. I’m always tired and isolate myself a lot because of how mentally exhausted I am.”
Even with the pandemic present many teens are still assuming responsibilities that they would have to be in a life of normalcy, including getting a job, and learning how to drive. With this juggle of responsibilities, teenagers rely a lot on their friends to help relieve stress and give support.
These social circles help to support teens with the ridiculous school workload and also provide mental support. They help teenagers find their sense of unity and self-identification as they try to find themselves in the presence of the real world.
These social circles help improve their socialization skills and allows them to do a little bit of self-exploration, which is important to do in high school. But, most teenagers would meet up in school and congregate together, but with online schooling this is not possible.
Harborfields High School junior, Moore Theobald develops some thoughts about the process of online schooling and how it is working out for him. “Online learning may be my favorite system for quarantine. I always feel more productive work-to-do-wise in this system. But there are plenty of downsides, one being that I have a harder time paying attention and participating in class. I also definitely would have learned more material if school was normal, not to mention all the technical difficulties and power outages.” Even through all of these concerns he is still willing to continue doing school from home.
With the system of online schooling, teens can also feel lonesome and not being able to get the right amount of help they would normally get in the school year.
Suffolk County Community College sophomore Erica Hunter expresses her concerns about not getting the in-person learning experience while going through college, “I miss getting extra help with my professors and going to learning centers in person. Online is almost the same but I want to be sitting next to them as I learn. It’s hard since I’m a better learner with teachers and classmates present.”
She had been struggling with some of her classes and feels as though she would understand a lot more if her tutoring sessions were in-person, which leads to the fact that she is learning less information then she had the previous year.
With the fear of another lockdown present due to the holiday season many teens are either excited or filled with anxiety. As a nation we should push for the support of these teenagers since they are the generation of the future.
