With the return of face-to-face classes, the unfortunately long era of constant Zoom meetings and laptop exposure has finally come to an end. After almost three years of an online setup, students are now able to meet together physically, not only through a screen. However, whether we like it or not, the pandemic has influenced everybody. Everyone had to learn a thing or two in order to adapt and survive during the lockdowns and community quarantines. So, in homage to those three painstakingly long years, here is a list of the things I learned during the setup. Do note that the things I’m about to list aren’t completely from my own experience but also include a collection of things I’ve heard from other people or seen on the Internet.
How to filter out “unnecessary” sounds: In the Zoom age, it was virtually impossible to ignore certain sounds and listen to the rest. Think back to the times when your Zoom-mate would unmute and suddenly the construction site in their area would sound like it’s beside you too, or when you and your family members would share a space to have meetings and you suddenly start fixating on their Zoom instead of yours. With everybody stuck in their homes, the background noise from your house and others’ soon became an obstacle to proper learning. While I can’t fully explain how I adapted to this, I’d like to think I got fluent in Zoom language and accustomed my brain to blocking out certain sounds.
How to stop my laptop from bursting into flames: With the constant Zoom meetings, video calls, online assessments, and multitasking, I think it’s safe to say that everyone’s laptop battery life probably decreased by a decade. Online school quickly became a test to see whose laptop would survive the longest, and unfortunately, mine was never the last man standing. With the ever-draining Zoom on, it became impossible to do anything else without my old laptop heating up like the Sahara Desert. Over time, I realized that overheating was inevitable, and instead of trying to avoid it, I should just work harder to combat it. With a laptop that was probably heating up 10 degrees by the second, the only option was to continually cool it down with a fan. This left me with no choice but to constantly have a mini-fan on my keyboard to avoid it from getting hot enough to fry an egg.
How to avoid answering the question you were asked: This, although definitely not a personal experience, is something that I’ve seen happens a lot during online classes. With the lack of physical confrontation, it was easier for everyone to gain confidence and avoid things they wanted to avoid. Imagine you just woke up from the best mind-numbing nap you’ve ever had. You log into Zoom just to find out that you were the one chosen to answer the math problem that’s being screen-shared. You have two options: (1) avoid it, or (2) admit to the teacher that you don’t know how and ultimately embarrass yourself. You choose option one. Now, there are two ways this usually goes down. Most people tend to use that TikTok video of an extremely laggy person talking through Zoom. To pretend that their wifi isn’t working, they unmute themselves and play said video. But if this doesn’t work and the teachers ask you to type your answer in the chat box, the last choice would be to just leave Zoom. Out of sight, out of mind.
While it’s exciting to be back to a face-to-face setup, there are still moments that make me miss the quarantine and its never-ending funny memories. However, with the start of every chapter comes an end to the previous one. Here’s to learning more tips and tricks to survive physical school in the post-pandemic era.
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