Mental Effects of Distance Learning

Distance learning refers to a process in which Instructors & Learners leverage the use of Technology to interact with each other to learn and grasp education in various domains. Distance learning usually means learning or attending lectures virtually through the medium of technology. Virtual learning involves online video lectures or conferences, and even workshops. This trend hit the world during Covid and has left a huge impact on everyone especially Generation Z because Generation Z became comfortable with this method of grasping education/learning.

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Now, distance learning might be fun because of learning new things and grasping a wide range of education, but have you ever tried to lean into the reasons why it is also backlashed by a majority of people? Because it has such enormous amounts of Mental Pressure on one’s mind that it makes it difficult for an individual to keep on going with distance learning, that, they switch to the physical mode of learning or continue without understanding or grasping anything.

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Now let me highlight such points to you and bring your attention to the problems;

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1.?????Difficult to acknowledge the teacher’s tone;

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This is one of the most common hurdles every learner faces while learning or trying to understand something through online lectures or videos. Online lectures do not depict a clear image of what the teacher or instructor is trying to make everyone understand about a topic and any learner can decipher the lectures in a wrong way and might understand or learn a topic/subject falsely. Now, this false understanding might create a problem for the learner as he/she can learn wrong which can create mental stress later on.

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2.?????Deteriorating eyesight & body posture;

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This is the one major effect of distance learning on every person as every individual needs to stick their eyes into their screens constantly for long hours which causes their eyesight to weaken and also leads to deteriorating body posture. Such discomfort to the eyes leads to blurred vision, headache, redness and other sufferings to the eyes which leads to mental stress in one’s life.

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3.?????Dent in Time Management;

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Now, distance learning might save your travelling costs and travelling time but it leaves you in a loop of extremely confusing scheduling of your other day-to-day stuff. For example, A professor wants to conduct his lecture at 5 PM but somehow due to some unavoidable reasons he was not able to conduct the lecture and re-scheduled the same lecture at 6 PM.

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Now, there might be some other work to which you have committed your time (6 PM), but re-scheduling of classes made you push that work to further suitable time and disturbed your whole schedule for the day. And, this is one of those issues which are Intangible in nature but leave a huge impact on one’s time management.

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4.?????Distractions;

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Okay, we all agree on this that not only Distractions come from our phones and other electronic devices, but also occur from our own household’s daily chores. I mean just imagine attending a class while your Mother is shouting at you to pick-up your Evening Coffee or your Maid just keeps on appearing and disappearing in your room, which makes you uncomfortable and also impacts your learning.

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Not only this, your mind will procrastinate because of the absence of the natural class structure and won't push you further to attend your lectures, as, it will automatically create a scenario where it will be commanding you to not take it as seriously as there is no Structural Management which will govern or look after your learning and understanding.

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Conclusion:

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In my opinion, Distance learning is made for those types of People who have a great command of their Mental Skills, which means they can fight their way out of all the procrastination and mend their way through the distractions because refining, what other person behind the screen is trying to convey and what you can decipher creates a very thin line which is caused due to your understanding or thinking skills. If you can crack it then you can make it out the Drawbacks of Distance Learning, especially its effect on one’s Mental Health.

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But if we look at it from an overall aspect then Distance learning is not at all an ethical form/way of learning anything in my opinion because what a Traditional Class offers you can never be offered by Online Structural Learning. The Environment, people, engagement and physical interaction make it stand out from every sort of Teaching Methodology.

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?Written By :Yash Pandey