With the discovery of a new disease, the Hantavirus, some people on social media have been suggesting the idea of a possible second pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was obviously something that was very new to everyone and took a lot of adjusting, but if there were to be a second pandemic, how would Woodbridge High students live it?
“I’d try to workout more”, junior Ayden Alvarez said. It is easy to get out of shape when you’re at home all day and are not allowed to leave your house. Some people even find physical activity soothing, almost like a therapy to get away from the ills of the pandemic themselves. Furthermore, many students participate in sports, and the opportunity to stay at home all day is a great way to get in extra work to get ready for the next season. The idea of working out more and getting away from the screen in general was a common trend in answers.
“I know for sure my time spent on screens skyrocketed, which I don’t think was beneficial for my overall state of mind”, junior Parthiv Das stated. Many people can relate to this. During the pandemic, the lack of in-person interaction and the shift to online learning forced many teenagers to rely heavily on devices for both schoolwork and entertainment, leading to widespread digital fatigue. However, while some students struggled with the mental toll of constant scrolling, others found ways to repurpose that digital space for meaningful connection.
“I’d play minecraft with friends so I wouldn’t be socially isolated”, junior Ryan Chowdhury answered. The way Chowdhury puts it makes the excessive screen time more understandable. Instead of mindlessly consuming content, using technology as an interactive tool would allow students to maintain friendships and recreate the casual social environments they lose when schools close.
All in all, the changes people would make in a second pandemic seem to stem back to technology, with either a goal to limit it or to use it to retain social connections. The biggest idea here, however, is that students felt the need to make better use of their time rather than doing something repetitive, which might be attributed to the greater workload of high school and the better understanding of the value of time as a result.
