Social media and COVID

 With classes online, they can seem very impersonal, boring, and detached from the usual learning experience. I remember the days of walking to a class sitting next to someone I knew or did not know, and exchanging in small talk. I miss these days, but as pop culture likes to call it, zoom university has created a platform for all new kinds of jokes and pranks to post on social media. The video I included is from TikTok and is based on a trend where a student's friends would sneak into their room while in class with the camera on and kidnap them to trick their teachers and fellow students. This trend happened internationally as everyone on TikTok and zoom classes decided to participate in the prank. While slightly disruptive, I found this idea hilarious and that it created some lightheartedness and positivity in zoom classes. A more serious example of how Covid has affected social media is the pressure to only post things that are covid friendly. On social media, I see a wave of criticism from viewers when a person posts videos or photos of a party or social gathering where no one was wearing masks. As I scroll through Instagram and other social media, it is more usual to see people's photos with masks on than without. This would have been a very strange occurrence to see a year ago and shows how fast pop culture has adapted to the pandemic. I have included a photo of the University of Kentucky Dance team, where you will now only see posts of them with masks on. This is an example of how different programs use social media to enforce covid safety measures and make it feel familiar to their viewers.