By DANIELLE GIANNANDREA
Staff Writer
As society starts to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many debates and questions on how individuals were affected by the lockdown. While some people see the pandemic in a positive way, the majority of people view it from a pessimistic standpoint. Some Individuals believe that the lockdown was beneficial for the development of creativity; on the contrary, as a whole population, there is a strong disagreement. The lockdown that took place due to the Covid-19 virus caused many issues within the human race. This quarantine period caused educational levels to decrease, mental illnesses to increase, and physical activity to be reduced.
Children, teens, and adults incorporated into the educational system struggled with their academic levels during and after the pandemic. Many students lost motivation during the lockdown because school appeared to be optional and teachers could not do much to keep students engaged over the course of the transition to online studies. Zoom was not enough for scholars to learn on; they had decreased time for studying and had to stay focused for half of the day. Students had to do school in their house where there were many distractions and some students had to even take care of their siblings while doing school. It was not easy to focus on the computer screen for longer than an hour a day because it was mentally draining for many people. Individuals that had always done well in school were struggling very hard to keep their grades up, especially when they returned to in-person learning the next year. Students were doing whatever they could to pass their classes; it got to the point where they never actually learned the material that was being taught to them which resulted in students “scor[ing] 17 percentile points lower… in the spring of 2021” (Source 1). Learning was especially hard for younger students because they had never been required to use computers in the past and they had to learn full time online. Not only was this decrease in learning based off of the online transitions that students suffered through, but the government was not worried about safely opening schools for these students. The government had no intention of allowing kids to go back to school, yet they were “more concerned about reopening bars and restaurants than safely reopening schools that hold the futures of more than 50 million children in their hands” (Source 1). The government was not focusing on the possible decrease in education levels for these students and now students all suffer these consequences. Many people struggled during the past couple of school years; they had no motivation to work and they did not learn much. All of us scholars are still struggling as we return back to school safely, simply due to the fact that we got used to seeing school as something that is optional.
In addition to decreasing educational levels, the pandemic led to people developing many mental disorders that they never had in the past. There was a huge increase in people that experienced anxiety, mood disorders, and suicidal thoughts. These disorders typically were experienced by teens, people in the workforce, and the sick in hospitals. People of all ages started to show symptoms of mental illness; some people may have already had these mental illnesses, but they especially struggled during these times. People were constrained in their homes, they had no one to communicate with and people had no inspiration to continue with their daily activities. The lockdown “increased feelings of loneliness and poor perceived social support” (Source 2). Individuals had no one they could get help from and became worried about coming into contact with people for fear of getting sick. These feelings of isolation and fear lead to new anxious behaviors and depression disorders became very relevant in society. A numerous amount of people’s daily activities were put to a stop, meaning that their daily routines and schedules were affected greatly. This decrease in a systematic lifestyle caused an “increased event rates for suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm” (Source 2). People lost many family members and friends to suicide during the pandemic, but no one ever noticed this increase in suicides because we were all too worried about the virus. The pandemic destroyed millions of lives, causing populations to experience great stress and feelings of despair. This is extremely apparent now that the lockdown is lifted in our area as people have gained many new types of social anxieties. The pandemic affected the mental status of individuals in very tragic ways: lives were lost, changed, and isolated.
The pandemic also led to many physical health problems within society. Many people gained weight during the lockdown because they had an increase in sedentary behaviors and had a huge decrease in their physical activity and healthy habits. Students were now working from their house where they could lay in bed and do their homework and theoretically, they could sit in one spot for hours. The same goes for many adults who were used to physically going to work and moving around at work, now they could sit at their desks at home for extended periods of time. Not only were people working from home, but gyms were also shut down, and people were not sure how to work out at their houses. People had no reason to get exercise during the pandemic, and it is estimated that “70% [of people] reported that they exercised less than usual” during the pandemic (Source 3). Ironically, people were encouraged to stay healthy during this time to keep themselves from getting sick; however, people ended up living even more sedentary lifestyles. Studies have shown that people, “gain[ed] more than 2 kg, with an average increase of 1.2 kg” (Source 3). Individuals were not exercising as much as they needed to be and people were not eating as healthy because that meant more trips to the grocery store. Individuals became used to living this inactive lifestyle which is causing society many concerns.
Regardless of the fact that COVID-19 negatively impacted society, some people continue to say that the pandemic had positive outcomes to it. They claim that the lockdown allowed people to come up with many creative ways to live their lives and keep themselves busy. Students adapted and found creative ways to learn online, new ways to communicate with their friends and they discovered new ways to keep themselves physically active and healthy. Do these positive outcomes outway the negative ones?
This COVID-19 pandemic really took a major toll on individuals’ lives; these past couple of years have been a struggle for many individuals, mentally and physically. We can never get back those years that we lost. Many families were torn apart, children’s academic levels declined and many peoples’ lives were strictly put to a stop. People discovered new sides of their lives during this pandemic and found a new perspective on life that is not always sunshine and rainbows. Life is hard, and it will slap you in the face and the COVID-19 pandemic just made that slap even harder on the face of society.
