As the meeting begins, a feel of loneliness, a feel of disconnect clouds my mind as I try to convince myself and make myself feel that I have occupied a virtual seat in the class. A lot of people who are now just mere profile pictures on the screen, the convenience of messaging on chat boxes and the prolonged silence in a virtual atmosphere as the professor starts the lecture brings in a feeling of desolateness and anxiety as I try and adjust to this so-called 'new format' of classes. Professors have turned into mere podcasters as they try to expend their knowledge with the rest of us on call, the frequent occurrences of network issues and breaks in the call and more importantly the rise in the number of online assignments and classwork is what has brought in a complete change in the way classes would usually feel like.
There is an almost unexplainable deafening silence, as we try and pace up with the lectures conducted, an absence of the noise and the sound of people who would be busy chattering before and after the lectures, as well as the usual grumpy and sleepy faces of people when they would be almost through with the lecture....
Deep down in my head, a voice beneath seeks to break away from the shackles and chains of reduced personal contact and connection, of the absence of extra-curricular activities, of the intermixing of personal and professional lives such that there is almost no boundary line to separate both aspects of our lives. Personal modes of communication such as WhatsApp have now become professional modes of communication, leaving no space for privacy even after working hours.
Such is the reality thrown upon us, as we try to make haste of the multitude of adjustments and problems that we have to undergo on account of this pandemic. Indeed, it has been a very challenging year for all of us students as we try to grapple with many of the issues that most of us have been facing in our day to day lives. Some of us even struggle to get a decent Internet connection so as to attend the online classes, making it seemingly challenging to really understand what is being taught to us on the video call.
Nevertheless, this is a phase that we all have to go through, and I believe that we will definitely come out victorious at the end of it. Looking at the infinite opportunities around the line, I see a world where there will be a lot of podcasters, a lot of influencers taking up jobs in various fields once we graduate from college. Infact, we are the most tech savvy generation and we have through our existence really revolutionized education to what it has always been through all these years- solely based on the traditional classroom style of copying notes from the blackboard to presentations on virtual classrooms today. So I would say that has been a really positive change, had it not been for the pandemic, we wouldn't have modernized and gone with the trends. Also the convenience of answering exams from the comfort our homes has really benefited us a lot, and we would definitely look forward to having this remain for long hopefully...
For now, we just keep ourselves going with the will and hope and we will definitely come out of this as greater and stronger individuals with a greater sense of purpose as well as the ability to change and impact the world for the greater good and the betterment of one and all!!!
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