April 1, 2022

How online school affects mental health

Learn how online school can impact mental health and strategies to cope with the pressure.

How online school affects mental health

1. Lack of proper sleep

If you stay up late to study, it is not healthy for your mental health. You can't focus on your work and also impacts the quality of the work on the next day.

2. Social interaction from others in the class

You need social interaction from others who are going through a similar thing as you like an online friend or somebody in class so that you won't feel alone and be more productive at studying instead of isolating yourself from other people in the class.

3. No deadlines, rush in an assignment or homework

Online school gives you the freedom to your comfortableness with liberty to extend your deadline as long as you want which is great when you are busy because some people have regular jobs outside of being a student. On the other hand, if you put off your work until the last minute, it will result in stress on your mental health and you won't be able to complete the assignment in time which just means more work for you.

4.Too much pressure, stress, anxiety, and doubt on what's next

Sometimes online students feel a lot of pressure from themselves to get everything done as fast as possible. That is why if too many things are piled up, it starts to stress you out which makes students lose their focus on studying and can cause low grades or even below-average grades due to forgetfulness, lack of motivation, etc...

5. No one checks up on you (unless they contact you)

Online school gives you the freedom of choosing your own pace but also has a negative side to it because if you feel that something is too hard for you and never ask anyone for help in class, it makes you overwhelmed with so much work when you take the time to catch back up. If there's no one that checks your progress or grades, then you don't know what expectations should you reach and how good or bad you are doing in studying.

6. People judging or making fun of you without knowing anything about you

Some people are just mean and make fun of other people who use online school as their learning tool instead of going to college which is not very nice. You can't judge somebody by their appearance because everybody should be given the right to study how they want and also with the method that is most comfortable for them.

7. Having to fight yourself on growing intellectually through online school instead of going to university/college physically (where they can see you)

If you go to college or university physically where there are people who are around you, it gives you a feeling like "I have to catch up with these students" but online school makes you grow more intellectually by thinking outside box, asking questions, and challenging yourself in what you know rather than just memorizing everything without any sense of knowing why you are studying this information at all.

8 . Not having anyone else supporting you besides your family & friends if you feel that your grades are not good enough

In online classes, there's no one that you can ask for help besides other online students who understand what it feels like to be in the same situation as you. An academic advisor or counselor will just give you a list of questions on how to improve your studies and grades without explaining in detail.

9. Not having someone to motivate you on doing well in your online studies

Universities and colleges see their students as an investment which is great but most people prefer the one-on-one approach where a professor teaching you how to do a specific thing that you are struggling with rather than asking random questions of other people who have no idea about what you are going through.

10. Having to work longer hours on a single assignment comparing to going to physical school where you are given more time to complete the assignment.

If I have a limited amount of time in order to do my assignments, it makes you rush which in result might make you not doing as good as you’re capable of or better yet worse than that.

Online school affects mental health since it makes students spend most of their time alone, without any significant human contact. Online schools have become an important part of modern education, which is why online schools have been growing in number every year. Different people take different approaches to online schooling and so does the way they affect a student's emotional life. Even though being an online student gives us the freedom to do things our way like taking time off whenever we want without being judged by others, it also has some side effects such as feeling isolated from others with less social skills due to being in front of a computer screen for a long period of time. That is why it's important to make sure that you are mentally and physically healthy enough if you want to be successful in your online learning environment with high grades and satisfaction from yourself.