Online Classes: Where focus goes to buffer

Once upon a lockdown, education went digital, and chaos found Wi-Fi.
Overnight, classrooms turned into Zoom links, attendance became screenshots, and everyone’s biggest academic skill became pretending to listen.

The 8 AM Struggle

You’d think not having to travel would make waking up easier. It didn’t.
8 AM class meant:

7:58 AM- alarm panic

7:59 AM - joining the meet

8:00 AM - “Good morning, ma’am” (camera off, brain off)
Everyone’s sitting there in hoodies, eating breakfast, with exactly 3% attention and 97% buffering.

The Camera-On Crisis

No three words have ever caused more fear than “Please turn on your camera.”
Instant panic. You suddenly remember every bad angle you’ve ever had.
Some people fake “network issues.” Others stare soullessly into the void.
And one brave soul actually turns it on, instantly regretting their life choices.

The Muted Monologues

Professors spent half their lectures saying, “You’re on mute.”
And students spent the other half saying, “Ma’am, you’re on mute.”
Entire conversations were lost to lag, frozen screens, and mics that refused to cooperate.

If you were lucky, your name didn’t get called when you were secretly making Maggi.

The Attendance Gymnastics

Roll call became a performance.
Someone always answered for their friend. Someone else renamed themselves to “Reconnecting…” just to avoid getting caught.
And the true legends? They joined class, muted, and went back to sleep.

The Multitasking Masters

Online classes turned everyone into world-class multitaskers:

Half listening, half scrolling.

One tab for notes, five tabs for Netflix.
“Sorry, my mic’s not working” (translation: I’m eating).

You learned how to nod convincingly while texting your group chat, a rare life skill.

The Unexpected Warmth

But somewhere in the lag and laughter, there were moments that felt… nice.
Study groups on Discord. Virtual farewells. Birthday celebrations over Zoom backgrounds.
We complained, but we also adapted together.
And when the world opened up again, it felt strange not to start the day with, “Can everyone see my screen?”

What Online Classes Actually Taught Us

How to study, survive, and stream all at once.
How to look awake while half-asleep.
How to find friendship through Wi-Fi.

But maybe the real lesson was how quickly we adapt.

What started as chaos slowly became comfort. We figured out how to learn from anywhere, kitchen tables, tiny balconies, even from bed with one eye open. We built routines, found our pace, and somehow made it work.

Online learning stopped being a temporary fix and quietly became a part of life. A space where lectures, laughter, and learning could all exist on the same screen.

Now, it’s not about choosing between online and offline; it’s about knowing that learning can happen anywhere.
Because we’ve grown used to it, we’ve grown through it.

And maybe that’s the best thing we’ve learned, that even when everything changes, we still find a way to keep learning.