Education is taught in a classroom environment in schools all over the world. Students are conditioned from ages to this traditional form of teaching. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the world, the entire scenario has been changed. Although the decision of online classes was shocking to everyone, students were a bit happy as they don’t want to go to their schools and on the other hand, they were sad, as they will miss their friends. With the emergence of online classes, parents were forced to get mobile phones or other gadgets for their children even if they didn’t wish that from their hearts. Children went on cloud nine as they were given a separate pc or mobile in which they could play, chat, enter social media, etc. Nobody knows what they do with their smartphones. Even if the parent questions the children, they had a witty answer that they are listening to classes or doing their assignments. No matter how strict their parents are or how hard they try to spy, the children started breaking all these by using the term ‘privacy’. Let us see how this situation affects a child’s mental and physical state.
MENTAL HEALTH
As we know, students are more likely to get distracted even by small things. In that state, they have to sit inside their homes and listen to the monotonous classes online. The classroom environment can never be brought to home as they have to share space with the family members. In this case, they tend to lose concentration very often as everyone in the house is engaged with some tasks. This brings no difference however hard they try to focus rather makes the student stressed out.
Kids start their social life only from school. They start to mingle with others only from that time. This important phase of life is missed out by them and they grow in a reserved manner. It becomes difficult for them to gel with society and others as they were homebound all these days. Again, this brings in mental stress for the introverts. However, Extroverts will cope with the situation better than introverts.
Studies from experts also reveal that kids are prone to develop anxiety and depression from being confined in a single place. They come across many things that are irrelevant to their age in social media and begin to watch unnecessary bad things out of curiosity. This stimulates the child’s mental state to do the wrong. Moreover, they increased the video games playtime and got addicted to games such as PUBG and free fire which also affects the mental stability directly.
PHYSICAL HEALTH
Apart from affecting mental well-being, online classes also affect physical health. Using mobile phones and PCs for a long time affects the eyesight and give rise to headache as well as fatigue. The rays from the gadgets cause eye pain and irritation. Children use the mobiles even after class time as they cannot go out and play with others. They use this technology as time pass. As a result, they lack physical activities like outdoor games. If they go to school, they had a separate hour for playtime during which they run and play on the ground. Also, when they return home from school, they enjoy playing games and cycling with their friends in the surroundings. This increases stamina and makes the physical body strong.
Learning is not only about gaining knowledge but also about physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. So, the emergence of online classes has created unwanted stress and irritation in budding lives. All these are not realized by the children as they lack enough maturity. Escaping from exams and other troublesome things, students continue to prefer online classes to get some lame advantages without knowing that they cannot escape from life exams. This would be realized one day or the other by everyone and that day they would regret the ‘lifeless life’ they led without spending time in the outside world.