Socializing at a Distance
A portrait of how Clayton teenagers have adapted to life in the next phase of the pandemic.
Two masked CHS students share a bench while engrossed in their phones
PHOTO TAKEN BY MAYA RICHTER
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arch 12, 2020 was the last day of normal school for most Clayton students. It was the last day of face to face conversations, unmarred by face masks. It was the last day of students and staff sitting right next to each other, with no regard for physical distancing. It was the last day of field trips, kids talking and laughing excitedly as they crowded onto yellow school buses. Yet this last day was also a first day, containing an air of anxiety, one that would become ever more dominant over the next 20 months. As cancelled spring break trips turned into stay-at-home orders and excessive hand washing became the norm, the social lives of teenagers moved online. Lunch table conversations moved to group chats and teens began to spend greater amounts of time on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Discord, and Snapchat. The isolation that teenagers experienced during the early part of the pandemic was very harmful to their mental health. “Being alone during the pandemic was so hard,” said CHS freshman Rayna Everett. Teenagers experienced record high rates of anxiety and depression due to social distancing and isolation practices. Social and physical isolation led to increases in
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time spent on social media. Over 50% of CHS students surveyed reported that their time spent on social media increased during the pandemic and is still higher than prior to the pandemic. Increased usage of social media had negative effects on people of all ages, but especially teenagers. “The rate of eating disorders really shot up during the pandemic because people felt they needed to come out of quarantine looking better and being thinner than when they entered,” said Kara Friedman, Licensed Professional Counselor. According to the Harvard School of Public Health website, Instagram’s algorithms pull teens into spirals of harmful content and reward negative emotions. Both of these factors can cause negative effects on the mental health of teens. “During quarantine, I used social media a lot more just because it was the way that I connected with people, since we couldn’t see each other face to face,” said CHS freshman Anna McAndrew. Teenagers bond through similarities in their lives and interests. “Social media helped kids have shared experiences and shared memories during quarantine,” said Friedman.
Some types of social media were used differently during Covid than others. “Once summer hit, we created the Discord. I used it for socializing. We played games on it, like Gartic Phone, and we also did voice calls,” said Sam Evra, CHS freshman. FaceTime was also heavily used by many teenagers, to replace the typical interactions of spending time in the same space as their friends. FaceTime more directly simulates traditional socialization, as it provides the combination of voices and facial expressions of the people that are talking. However, it is by no means the same as in person socialization, especially with the disconnect in words and facial expressions caused by poor cell service or WiFi. CHS sophomore Sam McDonough found a space for interaction on Twitter. “I’m on Twitter a lot more now. I started using Twitter to interact with people online, talking to my mutual friends and posting. I also got into the left side of Twitter, where I could share my opinion a lot,” said McDonough. Some of the most popular forms of social media include Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. “I use Snapchat, just as a way to communicate with people,” said CHS freshman Anna
