With a new remote semester underway, Zoom meetings, blue light glasses and digital introductions have truly been stamped into the golden plaque that defines our generation. Our daily achievements, rather than running from class to class, now consist of speaking up in digital classrooms or remembering to submit a discussion response on Canvas.

And you know what? It may not have always been pretty, but we clambered through the first week of online classes, so let’s pat ourselves on the back. But more often than not, it still feels like we are dreamily stuck in an endless time loop, caught again in the nightmare we experienced in March.

As nice as it is to go to class in sweatpants and slippers, wake up five minutes before logging on to Zoom and walk to the kitchen for a snack during breaks, it’s glaringly obvious the pros are outweighed by the cons of learning online. 

We on the editorial board are just as much students as everyone else, and all of us have become painfully aware of the toll it takes on our mental health. Staring at a screen 24/7 makes us feel isolated, lonely, even more exhausted than we would be from walking around campus all day under a beating Orange, California, sun. It can feel like the classmates we once sat down for a chat with in the Argyros Forum (remember that place?) or over lunch at Pizza Press aren’t even real. We all look like zombies in little digital windows, trying desperately to reanimate ourselves to feel passion for the field we chose to go to college for in the first place. 

It’s easy to allow your mental health to slip through the cracks, especially in a world with constant bad news that knows no respite. It’s easy to think if you just keep logging into Zoom, keep studying and working as hard as you possibly can, then your deteriorating state of mind will magically repair itself. This is destructive.

Chapman University statistics show that this quarantine has increased anxiety and depressive symptoms for a wide range of people. Even though we were isolated from most social interactions this summer, it felt as though there was more time to take care of ourselves: exercising, reading, journaling, cooking. Now, all of a sudden, we have piles of work and no mental or emotional stamina to keep up.

It’s imperative to take a much-needed breather. We need to get comfortable in our homes – whether it be a new dorm, a new off-campus apartment or our same childhood bedroom – and take it easy on ourselves. If we’ve learned anything about this time period, we know that life is uncertain and we have to learn to move with the ebbs and flows of this pandemic. 

It’s OK to not always be Zoom-camera-ready. It’s mentally draining to be “on” all of the time, feeling the looming presence of your laptop camera.

We need to talk about these issues, whether you’re a student or professor. “Zoom fatigue,” and the overall effect that COVID-19 has had on our mental health, is very real. Utilizing therapy, medication, and breaks from screen time and social media should be accepted and encouraged forms of coping this semester. 

It’s easy to lose hope and only see darkness at the end of the tunnel. For now, we have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. If there’s one thing quarantine has done, it’s forced us to confront the thoughts we could shove aside amidst the hustle and bustle of regular life, and face the issues we’ve pushed aside for too long.