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CAMERON: Today I’m going to be speaking with another freshman CU Boulder student, and we're going to be talking about how their college experience looks versus how they had expected it to look. And we're also going to be talking a little bit about how their technology use has changed and how they feel about those changes—and further, if they've done anything to try and combat the changes that the increased technology has brought about.

CAMERON: Hi, so thank you again for taking the time to speak with me today about your experience with technology and specifically technology within this online studying era. So, if you kind of just want to introduce yourself, first age, major, all of that stuff.

SPEAKER 1: I'm 18 majoring in IPHY and I’m a Freshman here at CU Boulder...um, that's my whole life.

CAMERON: Yeah, totally! So basically what I’m trying to figure out with this podcast is how technology, your technology use has changed or increased with COVID. So if you kind of want to tell me how you spent your free time before the pandemic and how that has shifted since the pandemic began, because obviously there's a lot less to do.

SPEAKER 1: Um before the pandemic I spent a lot of time in clubs and doing activities outside with my friends, doing things. Um...after the pandemic started I kind of just holed up, I guess? Um, it's kind of hard to do things without other people, so yeah. Spent a lot more time, you know, watching TV and Netflix, and just doing things by myself.

CAMERON: Yeah no, I totally feel you there. And then, I know you weren't quite in college last year—you were in high school—but, if you want to compare how a school day looked last year versus how one looks this year, and kind of maybe how your online college experience differs from kind of what you expected might have happened.

SPEAKER 1: Um, I mean definitely, in high school I’d wake up every day at like, you know, 6:30 in the morning, get ready, take a shower, you know, get on the bus, be at school early, do all my assignments. Now it's just like I wake up two minutes before class online, I turn on the Zoom, I turn off my camera, I turn off my audio, I go back to sleep, you know? It's um...I’d say it very negatively has affected my academics, but, um, I have been sleeping a lot more, so I think that's an upside.

CAMERON: Yeah, from what I’ve heard people either sleep a lot more or a lot less...and I sleep a lot less. But so sort of uh similar to what I was asking before—um and kind of you've answered this—but, how has this affected you mentally, physically, uh your grades, all of the above? Whatever you feel comfortable answering.

SPEAKER 1: Um, well it's definitely um affected me very negatively mentally...um, it's just the isolation can be really rough. Um, but um I will say that like being in college in the dorms during COVID has been really fun, and like I have been really, really social. Um and then like physically...um I mean half the time I’m like a raging couch potato, and the other half the time I’m going running like four times a day. So it's just like, I don't know, it's because there's so much alone time and it's...it's hard to make yourself get out of bed except when it's not hard to make yourself get out of bed.

CAMERON: So I totally understand that, actually. Before the pandemic, I like got really into running because my dad signed me up for a marathon without telling me and then he gave me like six months' notice. So I got really into running and then it was cancelled, and I was like “Never doing that again!” So that...yeah, that happened to me. And then, do you feel that the increased screen time that you mentioned—more time on Netflix and stuff—has played a big role in the deterioration of some of your mental and physical health.

SPEAKER 1: I definitely think it has. Um, I don't know, it's just so easy to sit there and watch Netflix for like 10 hours straight instead of, you know, getting up and going outside. Um, but I do think that it makes me, like, focus a lot more on that um and, like, regulate myself a little bit more which I think is good. Although, sometimes I just don't, and then I just don't even pay attention to anything other than my screen.

CAMERON: For sure. Do you feel the um education that you're receiving online is comparable to that of what you would receive in person? I know it's tricky because you don't really have the experience with in-person classes, but...

SPEAKER 1: Um, I would say definitely no. Um as I said before, I I feel like I don't give myself as much time to prepare for things for classes. I just wake up right when I have to wake up. I just do the assignments right when they have to be done, and I gotta be honest, I do them pretty mediocrely. Um yeah, it's just hard to actually care about anything. And then also with, like, lectures and things, um and non-like synchronous classes, um it's really easy to just play them and then turn the computer away and then watch Netflix on your phone. So that's really been a problem for me...

CAMERON: No, my Twitter account is getting a lot of action during my classes! Um...nobody can tell but...

SPEAKER 1: They know.

CAMERON: Yeah they...they know. And so, the next thing I kind of wanted to ask you about is uh, with the increased screen time, have you tried to reduce it at all? Or maybe made any efforts to do something else, or...?

SPEAKER 1: Right at the beginning of the pandemic, I moved in with my brothers. And um, I had TikTok from like school, um, and I...I like started like really liking TikTok. Um but when we got, like, sent home, I said I cannot have TikTok anymore because this is taking over my life. Yeah, so I deleted TikTok for about eight months, and now I am once again addicted to it. But you know what? During those eight months, I was only addicted to Netflix, so it feels right.

CAMERON: No, yeah! I am too scared to download...I don't have TikTok or Instagram or really much social media because I know myself, and I would get intensely addicted so I’m like...I cannot start. No, I cannot. But um with regard to your screen time and stuff, have you tried to pick up any new hobbies to combat all the Netflix watching, or...?

SPEAKER 1: I did start really intensely getting into Rubik’s cubes. Um, I’m proud to say that I can solve a 3x3 and a 2x2 at this point. I'm hoping to expand my circle to a 4x4 potentially...

CAMERON: That is laudable!

SPEAKER 1: Uh yeah, I'm...I’m nervous about it.

CAMERON: And then the last thing I want to know before I let you go is if you have any anecdote or story that sort of sums up your experience as an online student, a college student in the COVID era? 

SPEAKER 1: Um, I would say my favorite anecdote from this school era was when I was graduating high school and um, we were taking graduation photos because we weren't probably going to get a real graduation. Um...but they didn't give me my diploma, so instead we used my brother's cat as the diploma. And I just think that really sums up how I feel about COVID. Um I mean, it's...it's sad that we miss out on a lot of things, but also there's kind of a funny component to it too, and there's some good upsides.

CAMERON: I saw someone describe it as like the collapse of the Roman Empire, but with the internet. And I’m a Classics student. I’m like, that feels right. It feels right.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah.

CAMERON: But um...well thank you for speaking with me today, and I hope in the coming years of your college life, you get a more normal experience!

SPEAKER 1: Thank you.