Online Overwhelm

The potential negative effects that online school could have on students’ mental health.

Photo by Bella Baker

Above: Sitting in front of a computer screen for hours at a time can be mentally taxing on students who are trying to succeed at online school.

By Bella Baker

Lifestyle Editor

Many students have chosen to switch to distance learning this year. This has been a big adjustment for some teens that have never gone through online schooling before. This change of pace results in a very different day to day routine. With more time being spent at home and away from peers, Many wonder the effects this has on students’ mental health.

Jill Khan, a licensed family therapist, shared some of her knowledge on mental health and the effects online schooling has on the brain. She explained that there are essentially 3 main ways online school can affect kids: emotionally, physically and cognitively. “Emotionally, teenagers need to have socialisation and interact with their peers,” Khan said, “It’s very important for their emotional development.”

She shared that it is important for students to engage with others around them and use that to grow and help themselves. “With working online, we are seeing a ⅓ increase in anxiety, deppresion, panick attacks, and suicide attempts,” Khan states. Making sure students have people to talk to and support them while they tackle online school is crucial to their mental health.

Being isolated not only has negative effects on people’s emotions, but also on how one thinks. “Cognitively, when people are talking about their ideas it helps then develop what we call higher order thinking skills.” Khan said. This means individuals learn to think in more complex ways when interacting with people around us directly. This is super important to help kids learn and think more critically. “When doing [school] online we miss out on social cues and pick up on subtle nuances” Khanstated. Without social cues it is difficult for someone to develop empathy. People need to see other peoples faces and hear their voices in order to become more in tune and sensitive to these emotional pieces related to empathy.

In addition, there are physical consequences as well. When sitting at a screen for hours it can cause eye fatigue, back pain, headaches, stiffness, and other negative effects. Having frequent movement when working at a computer helps the body to become less lethargic and promotes positive charges in one’s brain. Getting physical activity also gives the brain something else to focus on and direct energy towards instead of being mentally exhausted from doing assignments at a computer screen all day.

Working from home is not always easy mentally, emotionally, or physically. Taking steps to talk to a supportive mentor or teacher and get physical activity are simple things that could improve mental health in students who struggle in online school.

“Emotionally, teenagers need to have socialisation and interact with their peers.” -Jill Khan