Has COVID-19 Affected Our Ability to Learn?
The Truth About Doomscrolling
The phenomenon “doom scrolling” became very prominent in 2020, especially during the peak of COVID-19. Transitioning to at-home learning caused students to heavily rely on technology. Consequently, this spiked daily screen time due to children being self-isolated inside their homes. COVID-19 is evidently one of the key factors in young students’ setbacks in academic, cognitive and social development.
The sudden home confinement in Mar. 2020 caused a massive spike of social media usage and scrolling on Tiktok and Instagram. “Doom scrolling” is defined as a compulsive way of spending time online through constant scrolling. It causes a person’s brain to be stuck in constant fight or flight mode. For school, it breaks students’ concentration.
Since the pandemic, standardized test scores across the United States have significantly decreased, mainly the students in elementary grades who were confined in their home during COVID-19. During lockdowns and remote learning, students have fallen behind in math and reading, while also finding significant gaps in social cognitive and fundamental skills. According to The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a reading score decrease was the largest in 30 years, while math scores experienced their first decrease since the study began.
“I feel like during COVID I got very used to doing everything online and when I had to go back to school and everything was back on paper and the hours were longer, it made it a lot harder to adjust,” junior Mackenzie Ashburn said.
Constant scrolling results in heavy procrastination, mental fatigue and poor academic performance. According to Harvard Health Publishing, a study regarding mental health effects from doomscrolling established that 800 adults were monitored for their mental health. The study found that doom scrolling evoked greater amounts of anxiety, and that employees who doom scroll while in a professional setting became less engaged with their tasks.
“My ability to learn since COVID-19 has changed a lot because Tiktok and other social media apps have shortened my attention span,” junior Ella Shiver said. “It makes it harder to focus at school, as the fast paced feed increases dopamine, which school does not provide.”
In conclusion, COVID-19 paid a toll on the majority of students’ academic progression, resulting in lower test scores throughout the years across the United States.
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