Teenagers (Ashrith Akkaraju)
Fact Checked Source: "Teens Stuck At Home Because of The Corona Virus"
On March 19, 2020, Buzzfeed News writers Rachel Sanders and Anne Helen Sanders wrote about how the teenage community is dealong with the coronavirus pandemic, more specifically, the quarantine imposed as a result of it and their time spent during it. Buzzfeed Article Link
Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked
In order to better understand the article and how these teenagers look at the quarantine, I looked at five claims made across the different submissions by the teenagers' featured to see if they held any degree of truth.The truth is, lots of Mexicans don’t even know what COVID-19 is, so we started quarantining before it was required by the Mexican government
- Aiden, 13, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
After looking at the quote by Aiden, I copied and pasted it into google and it redirected me to an article titled "Mexico’s coronavirus-skeptical president is setting up his country for a health crisis" from Vox. In that article, it went over how President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told many Mexicans that they should not fear the coronavirus, despite the hundreds and thousands of cases at the time.
The one silver lining to this situation is that at least the beaches won't be closed anytime soon.
- Max Bielawski,17, Kahului, Hawaii
Max mentions how beaches will not be closed anytime soon, especially as a resident of an island nation. Despite his predictions, the CDC guidelines state that all public social gathering areas will have to be closed for the time being and many news sites have come out with statements that states like Florida and California have closed down their beaches.
And I don't know how many more people our world will lose to the virus called COVID-19.
- Morgan Macdougal, 17, Lincolnville, Maine
As of right now, after checking the coronavirus map on Google News, worldwide there are currently 3,002,303 confirmed cases, 878,818 recovered, and 208,131. According to Time Magazine, the death rate of coronavirus is only 3.4%, which isn't too bad.
I really can't exercise during "quarantine."
- Davis Norma Ouriel, 17, Los Angeles
The physical therapy center Excelsior Orthopaedics gives tips on staying active and healthy during this quarantine period, which includes workouts that you can do everyday both indoor and outdoor, which range from pilates and weight lifting to jogging in your neighborhood, cycling, and dog walking.
I took my first day of online school pretty seriously, but by day two, my focus had waned. I deleted TikTok and Snapchat to try to keep the ball rolling with my projects, but my enthusiasm is fading
- Natalie Radu, 17, Manalapan, New Jersey
With different distractions around the house, it is hard to stay focused, especially in households with a lot of technological devices around, as apps tend to cause us to lose focus on our important things.
Analytical Essay
Being stuck at home sucks, especially during a time like this. However, there are different ways to cope up with it, especially teenagers, as they are hit the hardest in terms of socializing. The article Teens Stuck at Home Because Of The Coronavirus from Buzzfeed news is written mainly from the perspective of teenagers under lockdown as a result of the imposed quarantine on the nation. The perspective of the teenage mindset is shown a lot due to most of the article being excerpts from entries by various teens across the US, who have a position in society that is not influential yet but can be if they choose to use their minds collaboratively.In the article, it is clearly shown that the teenagers are very bored during quarantine and have run out of things to do by themselves, and can't wait to go back to hanging out with their friends and what not. COVID-19 has been affecting more and more people by that day, especially the younger people. While most adolescents are adamant to hang out with friends, they don’t realize that they can potentially risk carrying the disease and pass it on to the older people in their lives. This virus has been shown to be lethal, so therefore social distancing is what is keeping their lives safe right now. “I'm a senior, and I have been dreaming about the perfect second semester of my last year of high school for the entire time I've attended Interlochen” says 18-year old Noelle Johnson of Traverse City, Michigan. While the lockdown is hard for many adolescents, it is especially hard for seniors in high school since they will not be able to experience prom and graduation like the other seniors get to. Moreover, this quarantine is causing a rift in some families as some teens find their siblings to be distracting while taking classes or doing work.
Most of the teens writing in this article are writing it for other teens out there as well as adults to show their struggles of being an adolescent during quarantine. Furthermore, their use of testimonials to emotion work for them as it shows that light innocence of being a growing child while amidst a serious situation such as a pandemic. Moreover, the contributors to the article have similar yet very different viewpoints on ways to spend their quarantine, as well as what to do about the situation. Annie Fox, the author of Too Stressed to Think offers her wisdom on things to do while in a state of mental lockdown for teens, when they are having dull thoughts. She includes 3 main things to do: “Think about it, talk about it, and write about it” (Fox, pg. 17). Her tips for coping with depressive situations and feelings are aimed at the teenage audience and focused on helping them to make the best of any situation. Facts from behavior specialists like Annie Fox and doctors regarding guidelines on how to deal with lockdowns and stay safe are what teens look for, but definitely not their parents advice. Most teenagers are usually out for themselves, but the quarantine has forced them to become more collaborative minded and listen to each other and build each other up. While lunchtime in american schools is usually looked over and kind of a stress-reliever from classes, facetime lunch sessions with friends have been put into effect by teenagers as they miss that social aspect.
In conclusion, while being in quarantine is hard, especially as a doctor/medical professional or even otherwise, being in quarantine as a teen is even harder as they have to battle their inner demons while also coming up with creative ways to cope and even help their peers cope with the crisis ongoing around them.