As COVID-19 cases surge across the country, millions of students are once again shifting to all-remote learning. Between Sunday, Nov.
22 and Monday, Nov. 23, the percentage of students exclusively attending school online jumped from 36.9 to 40 percent. Once again, school leaders and government officials are scrambling to figure out logistics.
But there's a huge remote learning side effect they've yet to consider: Student loneliness. Children are suffering terribly due to government-imposed lockdowns, school closures and extreme social distancing.
In terms of early mortality risk, social isolation can be just as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a study in Perspectives of Psychological Science.