Media While Quarantined

   Socializing is an extremely important activity for everybody and the sake of their mental and emotional health. While it's tough for everybody to quarantine themselves and confine themselves to their four walls, with nobody but family for weeks on end, this is especially difficult for those who need routine and consistent socializing to help take care of the mental health that they already need extra help to take care of. I am one of these people, since I have ADHD among the common comorbodities that come alongside ADHD, this has been especially difficult. Nothing beats proper socializing, which is speaking with people you enjoy spending time with face to face in person, however of course this is not plausible with the extreme importance of social distancing to try and stop the spread of this pandemic as quickly as possible and to make it easier for our healthcare workers who are working tirelessly to treat patients with the virus, and coming up with a cure or some sort of vaccination for COVID-19.
  This said, I don't know where my headspace would be during this quarantine if it weren't for media. Like I mentioned, nothing beats proper socializing but in times like this, the media and it's different forms are the next best thing. The most obvious form being social media, especially the most popular platforms right now which are Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. Through these platforms we can empathize with each other, because we are all collectively going through the exact same thing right now. It also gives us a way to communicate with friends in fun ways. We can start new hobbies and share them with people in a way that promotes this chain of creativity for when there's not much else to do. TikTok is especially good for this, with people creating new dances to different songs for people to learn this gets us to be active in a fun away. I also love to follow the artists who promote their art on TikTok, who also create their own challenges and as an artist it has fueled my creativity so much considering I can't draw much inspiration from the physical world right now. I have also been teaching myself how to play the guitar through YouTube videos, and what better time than right now to keep learning!  People are using this time to make YouTube channels and TikTok content now that they have the time and enough boredom to begin a new project they may have been too hesitant to do before. As for Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat they are also wonderful sites to keep in contact with your friends and even to make new ones! People all over the world are advertising making quarantine group chats to meet new people to talk to, which is a fantastic way to further understand different cultures and lives, and will really help develop empathy for another during these trying times. They have been especially useful in finding out what's going on in the world right now, things I may not have even heard about.
  Another incredibly useful form of media, though not much to do with socializing, are streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon. Personally, I've been watching a lot of Disney+ and Netflix. Netflix has especially been wonderful for some social connection because of a feature they have on Google Chrome, Netflix Party Google Chrome Extension. Once downloaded among all that you would Netflix Party with, you can pick a movie, share the link, and watch whatever was picked together. It includes helpful features , like when one person pauses the movie, it pauses for everybody else, same with playing, rewinding or fast forwarding. There is also a chatbox, so everyone can text throughout the viewing without having to pause or reach for their phones and can pay attention to the content. I have been using this a lot with my friends and girlfriend, it makes for an interesting movie viewing "hangout" or "date" and can be a lot of fun. I don't believe any other streaming service provides such an option, however I have also recently discovered an app called Rave. Rave allows you to do the exact same thing as the Netflix Party extension, not only with Netflix but with YouTube and music streaming services too.
  Finally, last but certainly not least (it is in fact one of the more important points to cover here) is the fact that most of our educational experience requires online sources. Out of all eight of my classes, only two have never relied on online sources to complete assignments, projects, or homework. While in the rest of them it is usually a combination of online and old fashioned pen-and-paper learning, they all rely on online heavily. I have been doing online learning within my classes since the fifth grade, which was the first year the education system really started integrating technology in the classroom. Without years of using these resources, we may not have been properly equipped to transfer from a classroom setting to an online setting nearly as easily. Let alone lack of media at all, then we wouldn't be able to whatsoever. Using resources such as Canvas, Google Drive and all of its sub-features (Google Docs, Slides, e.t.c), Zoom, Microsoft Teams, e.t.c. have aided in making this as smooth a transition as possible. Though there are currently some complications, mainly with Canvas as it is currently overwhelmed and doesn't have enough servers to function for all the students trying to log in at the same time, once it does work it's easy to navigate since I have been using it since the very beginning of high school. The positives outweigh the negatives to online learning by a lot. The only negatives being lack of socializing and having a more delayed response to any questions about a particular lesson, since we have to use email. The positives though, is that unless there is a scheduled Zoom or Microsoft Teams conference for a specific time and date, completing the lessons and assignments are much easier to do and more convenient for a flexible schedule.
  Overall, media while in quarantine has been vital to keep me level-headed and has given me as much of a structured day as being in quarantine will allow me to. After a while I'll admit it gets boring mindlessly scrolling through social media, and rotating between the same three apps, but balancing my media consumption healthily with other activities such as chores, taking walks in non- crowded places for some fresh air, making art, reading books, e.t.c. has helped me keep busy with and without media. Though it needs to be a healthy balance, I'm finding the media use needs to be there especially now as it is my only connection to the outside world and form of communication with those outside of my house.