Daily restrictions that have already passed over two years
After graduating from school, young people feel a sense of liberation and great freedom at the same time, and at the same time feel a great sense of responsibility as much as the increased freedom, and they go through a period of growing maturity. However, due to the continued quarantine policy, young people do not realize what freedom is.
In Germany, young people in their 20s who have already graduated from high school or have just entered college are called the “corona generation”.
According to an interview covered by DW (Voice of Germany, Deutsche Welle), a 20-year-old German young man said that the brief memories of the summer of 2021 have become something very special that he will always want to cherish.
He actually said that over the past two years, many people have always said, ‘Enjoy your youth. Because youth is disappearing now,’ he said, but he said that it was not a situation where he might enjoy his youth, and he joked that if one day children asked what we did when we were teenagers, we would have to say we were always at home. .
© Getty Imagesbank
Youth and young people in the era of the corona pandemic
The young man interviewed said the long-term effects of the ‘closures’, ‘contact restrictions’ and ‘online schools’ experienced by the Corona generation would probably be seen in a few years. He says he’s a little better now, but there were times when he was very depressed. But now I like being at home. Our generation has already embraced that fact relatively quickly, as this is the time.” He said regarding the reality that Corona has changed.
Fortunately, as of February 2022, Germany is planning to completely lift the quarantine policy, so these young people will be able to graduate normally. This young man dreams of a once-in-a-lifetime graduation party, and wants to experience a gap year for volunteering (the act of experiencing various activities such as volunteering, traveling, career exploration, and starting a business following taking a break from studies or for a while) are doing One of the painful lessons young people were forced to learn during the pandemic is that there is no such thing as a ‘perfect plan for a crisis’.
“We all have certain fears in certain situations, and we feel moderately anxious when looking into the future,” the young man said. Because we don’t know. Something might reappear, for example a new variant. Maybe we won’t be able to do what we want in the future. This kind of anxiety always dominates us,” he continued with a somewhat pessimistic interview.
Corona has changed even the travel we enjoy © Getty Imagesbank
Children are feeling fatalism
The young man received a third booster vaccine from Dr. Axel Gerschlauer, a spokesperson for the German pediatrician. On the same day Gerschlauer was interviewed, his 17-year-old patient tested positive for COVID-19. Together with Gerschlauer, who wept together over the above results, the patient said that her life was terrible and that she had been unable to do anything for two years and felt like a loser in the epidemic.
Gerschlauer said he felt great resentment at this “fatality” felt by children and adolescents. An analysis of doctors in the western German city of Bonn said that children and adolescents did not expect any further assistance because they felt ‘anxiety that no one would help them’.
Situations in which children feel fatalistic represent a sad reality © Getty ImageBank
Already a year ago, Gerschlauer warned of the enormous damage to young people and children, and argued for the need to significantly increase the number of psychotherapists. But this was not done.
He argued that there are three difficulties adolescents face: sleep disorders, eating disorders, and anxiety disorders.
Ultimately, these difficulties limit the social activities of children and adolescents, he said. In addition, Gerschlauer has waited two years for ventilation filters to be installed in all schools and has come up with numerous quarantine ideas for school buses, etc., but politicians have not dealt with it. He said it was the main reason he was diagnosed.
Corona pandemic is limiting children’s social activities © Getty Imagesbank
Gerschlauer said he was always tired and weary, just like children and adolescent patients. On the day of the interview, he did 12 PCR tests, 11 of which were positive. As such, Omicron is currently shaking up schools across Germany. Results presented at a meeting of Germany’s education ministers revealed that 6% of students and 3% of teachers are currently in quarantine or have been infected.
Corona pandemic seen through children’s eyes
What he observed was actually just the tip of the iceberg, says Gerschlauer, who practices in the south of Bonn, the former German capital, where an overall high quality of life and well-education is available. He expressed his deep concern that children and adolescents living in communities experiencing economic hardship and cramped living conditions with much higher rates of infection will suffer greatly from the epidemic.
He is now calling for policy change for children and youth. At the end of the interview, he argued that it is time to shift the title of fighting epidemics from “suppression” to “protection” because omicrons cannot be contained.
Loss of control as a result of the future – the most important stage of life interrupted by the pandemic
The medical and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents are clear. How is the corona generation different from the previous generation?
Prof. Klaus Hurrelmann, professor of public health and education at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, has been studying the younger generation for decades. He said children and young people during the pandemic are feeling that they can no longer control themselves.
Because of the inability to control and plan his life, he said he is eventually falling into a mental swamp in desperate need of support and help. Hurrelman said the more sensitive, pessimistic, and pre-pandemic children, adolescents and young adults they are, the more affected they are.
Pandemic is limiting children’s social activities © Getty Imagesbank
According to a survey he conducted, 800,000, or regarding a third of adolescents and young adults, said they had been very anxious regarding the epidemic, which significantly worsened their school performance. Educational institutions can compensate for this in the short term, but in the end it comes as a huge burden on companies and higher education institutions. According to Hurrelman, he said there are winners of the epidemic even among young people.
Young people with the right mindset revealed that they are actively adapting to infectious diseases, internalizing new rules quickly, and reorganizing their daily lives on their own to regain initiative in their daily lives. However, this means that adolescents who cannot easily control this can have fatal consequences.
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