As lockdown draws to a predicted end on May 17th and June 21st, many of us find ourselves self-reflecting on our time in quarantine, going over what we may or may not have achieved during this odd time of isolation, and impatiently awaiting the hopefully post-Covid summer.
Looking back, it becomes quite apparent that social media has played a large, impacting role in our time alone at home; not only did it massively help (the majority of the time) in getting us all through the difficult times with the odd comic relief here and there, but it united people from across the globe in this strange, new experience we were all going through together.
Matias Rubio, a student of secondary school, reflects on his own experiences, and says that “ When I wasn’t with my friends, the only social aspect of my life was through the internet, and I was glad to have some way of relieving stress with apps I enjoy and still being able to contact my friends. It was refreshing and gratifying to see that I could relate to everyone on my social media platforms. The portrayal of COVID was mostly very accurate, and as people managed to make a light-hearted joke out of quarantine (which we could all understand), I think social media eased the tension of lockdown.”
By the end of the first lockdown week in March 2020, an almost entirely complete world had been created on social media that reflected the ups and downs of quarantine, however how accurate was this interpretation of COVID really?
TikTok was, undoubtedly, one of the largest of platforms that built up this almost picture perfect quarantine life. With new recipes such as whipped coffee, Chloe Ting ab workouts and countless viral skincare and diet trends, the first lockdown seemed to reflect as generally a relaxing process on the popular video-sharing app amongst teenagers. It was a time for self-reflection and a period in which we could somewhat loosen up - such a sudden, total isolation from the outside world helped many in facing intimidating school assignments or personal goals. Videos of ‘aesthetic’ notes and productive schedules seemed to motivate us further with each day - a good thing, surely? Or was there a darker side to all of this?
Seeing other people your age managing something so incredibly impressive and productive with their time, whilst motivating, can be just as equally daunting. With such a rapid change from an everyday schedule students had grown accustomed too, it was not so easy to all of a sudden turn to this flawless lifestyle. To have so much extra time, without having barely any chance to learn how to properly manage it, it is not difficult to imagine how much of a challenge quarantine would have posed to teenagers going through school.
Moving forward to the second lockdown in December, it was startling to see how vastly teen’s social media platforms had changed in terms of COVID opinions. The same TikTok ‘for you pages’ that were once almost too optimistic, boasting jaunty sounds and sparkling filters, were now far more negative - creators shared their worries and lack of motivation for any sort of productivity: the situation we were all in seemed to have been going on forever and it didn’t look like an end to it would come any time soon.
However, things soon turned for the better in early March when schools began to reopen and students could be amongst their peers and teachers once again - reunited after a painfully long break. The world seemed to be slowly waking up; sports and clubs were starting up, lesson structures flowed just as they did before and support was significantly more easily accessible.
And finally, here we are today, only weeks away from stage three of relaxing the lockdown restrictions, and hopefully only less than two months away from lifting lockdown completely. The journey we have all been through seems surreal and time has flown by far quicker than I’m sure any of us could have imagined. Hopefully, this time we really are coming up to something of an ‘end’ of COVID, and hopefully, we will never have to go on such a rollercoaster of our own lives through social media ever again!
