Re-read The Campanile until you pass out (for best results, repeat until quarantine is over

By Parker Wang Staff Writer

Sophomore Tyler Wang has escaped from the physical and mental constraints of the shelter-in place order, and has flown to a far-away island with his basic necessities. He lands and walks out of the island airport, immediately knowing that he is on his favorite island: one that specializes in fish and where more expensive fish can spawn.

“I spent 30 minutes trying to catch rarer fish to get the most money out of the island as I could,” Wang said.“Towards the point that I was going to finish up and head home, I had caught a blue marlin and a tuna, which are some of the rarest fish you could catch that month, meaning I could get a much better profit just by finding those two fish.”

In reality, though, Wang isn’t really on an island and he hasn’t become an expert fisherman. He has, however, been playing Nintendo’s Animal Crossing New Horizons to occupy his time during the school shut down caused by COVID-19.

With the current shelter-inplace order, many Paly students’ gaming habits are changing.

“Before the quarantine, I had

By Claire Shimazaki Staff Writer

Human beings are designed to thrive off of social activity; what happens when we are ordered to isolate ourselves from each other for months on end? A six foot gap and conversations from behind masks aren’t ideal for mingling with friends, after all.

As social distancing persists and the uncertainty of returning to normal life lingers, some find themselves feeling the toll that sheltering-in-place has taken on their mental health.

Mary Brayton, a Californiabased psychotherapist, said that humans have been social beings from birth.

“From the very beginning of our first cells, we were born out of a relationship. We are social animals with needs to be held, fed, calmed, mirrored and loved,” Brayton said. “One of the extraordinary effects of the pandemic is although we are social animals, we are required to shelter in place.”

Of each of the age groups, one of those experiencing the most distress seem to be teenagers. Although teenagers are much less susceptible to the virus’s fatal symptoms, many whose biggest concerns were Friday math tests and what to wear to school the next day are now living through a pandemic that will someday be immortalized within high school textbooks.

This lockdown has caused many teens to miss out on some of the most glorified events of their youth, including prom and graduation. With feelings of anxiety and confusion resulting from these stolen memories, some students say their mental health has suffered, even within the safety and comfort of their own homes.

“Personally, my mental health has gotten worse because usually I begin to feel sad or lonely when I don’t have activities to take up my time, so I’m alone with my thoughts,” freshman Kylie Tzeng said. “I think in general, teenagers were really excited at first because there’s no school, but over time we have realized how important it is (for social interaction). There is just so much free time now that I don’t know what to do with (it).”

Tzeng is not alone. The Disaster Stress Helpline, A federal crisis hotline, reported an 891% increase in calls for support in March of 2020.

Paly guidance counselor Whitney Aquino said that the emotional effects of lockdown vary from person to person. “In general, this experience can bring up a lot of emotions in folks, such as frustration, lonelionly played it every so often, since I had been more preoccupied with school and athletics or other games,” Wang said. “I have been playing more Animal Crossing and other games because of the increase in free time.”

Sophomore Clea Kuo plays New Horizons to keep in touch with her friends and to strengthen her relationship with her sister. “After the shelter in place and the cancelation of school, my schedule was more flexible and I was assigned less schoolwork, meaning that I could afford to dedicate lots of time to Animal Crossing,” Kuo said.

Animal Crossing games date back to 2001, when the first installment of the series was released on the Nintendo 64. Released on the Nintendo Switch several weeks before the shelter-in-place order began, the latest and most popular Animal Crossing installment is New Horizons.

According to SuperData Research, Nintendo has sold more than five million digital units in the first month of New Horizons’ release, which approximately matches the first-month digital sales of Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Pokémon Sword and Shield, two of Nintendo’s most popular games, combined. Many people see New Horizons as a unique virtual world to escape to, where fantasy and creativity come into play in designing and expanding the village.

“The game’s graphics have definitely gotten much better over the times, and also I think that New Horizons is a very unique game among the Animal Crossing series because of islands,” Wang said.

Being a seasoned Animal ness and anger,” Aquino said. “It manifests in anxiety and depression. Everyone reacts differently. It’s tough for high schoolers in that during this time of life, (because) being social and connected is really important to them,”

Brayton agrees with Aquino, and explained how lockdown goes against our human drive to be social.

“A lot of people are finding that they enjoy the opportunity to slow down and stop and smell the roses.”

Whitney Aquino

“Long-term isolation isn’t natural for us social beings,” Brayton said. “Effects are different for each person, from feeling anxious to depressed. If our basic needs are being threatened such as not having money for rent or food or car payments, this is downright scary. The effects of isolation can be quite troubling.”

According to Sophomore class president Matthew SignorelloKatz, his everyday life has been changed beyond recognition. “Everything is changing, and (our disrupted) routine is having a negative effect (on us),” Signorello-Katz said. “For me, that has been very difficult –– Facetiming and texting simply aren’t the same. For a lot of students at Paly, it has had a negative mental health effect due to lack of social contact as well as school events being thrown out the door.”

Signorello-Katzsaid different age groups seem to have different concerns about the lockdown. “Juniors are probably relying upon this semester academic-wise to improve their GPAs, so I think that is definitely a possible stress

ETHAN WANG/USED WITH PERMISSION

Crossing player, Wang said he has played Wild World, a previous installment of the series, since seventh grade.

Wang says the basic mechanics of the game, including crafting and increased character customization, are new features of the latest release.

Other New Horizons users like sophomore Crystal Xin say they enjoy the mechanics of the game such as terraforming, a tool that can alter the terrain of their island and customize their furniture. Terraforming allows users to paint paths for their vilor,” he said. “For sophomores and freshman, I find that the main stressor is not having in-person interaction.”

Junior Tanya Guzman explained how the pandemic affected the class of 2021.

“The uncertainty and disorganization of the College Board is affecting juniors a lot,” Guzman said. “I don’t even know if I’m taking the SAT, which got cancelled around the time that lockdown first started. I think that it’s unfair for colleges to expect us to pick up a new talent during a global pandemic and turn this into another situation to compare students. It’s really frustrating that everyone’s plans and training for the SATs are getting messed up by this.”

As for her mental health, Guzman said her’s has seen a decline since lockdown was implemented.

“My mental health has definitely gotten worse,” Guzman said. “I don’t really want to talk to friends on the phone for more than 20 minutes or so or I start to get annoyed at them. I’ve been distancing myself because I feel like talking to friends is just a distraction from the pandemic. Social media is super toxic right now because it’s really time consuming and bad for body image. Quarantine just feels like an endless cycle of doing nothing.”

Other students, like sophomore Jordan-Elijah Fakatou, say they are trying to reap the benefits of sheltering in place and use the alone time for some personal growth.

“I think my mental health has gotten better,” Fakatou said. “I’ve had more time to reflect on myself and figure out how to be a better person. The world moves so fast, (and) in quarantine it’s nice to have a break from that.”

Brayton said there are several ways to maintain your mental health despite the lack of routine and troubling times. lagers to walk on and to break down cliffs to create waterfalls, making every Animal Crossing user’s island look more distinctive and less like a deserted island.

Xin said she enjoys watering and planting flowers on her island to make it look pretty. Terraforming is one of her favorite features, though.

“Terraforming is really tedious and more exhausting than you’d expect from a game,” Xin said. “However, at the end, terraforming is really rewarding and the effort is worth it.”

“What all the experts say to do is think out of the box, exercise, maintain virtual contact and remain positive with a notation each day of what you have that you are grateful for,” Brayton said.

Aquino points out that there are bright spots in the world despite the chaos.

“A lot of people are finding that they enjoy the opportunity to slow down and stop and smell the roses,” Aquino said. “We’re all experiencing this together, the whole world, and that’s something that’s connecting us.”

During times where everything is focused on our physical health and wellbeing, it is important to give your mental health your attention as well. .

“There’s no one size fits all answer, but I’ve been trying to keep a positive mindset,” SignorelloKatz said. This is only temporary. We will get through this.”

Where to go if you need help: 1-800-273-8255- National

Suicide Prevention Hotline

Schedule a virtual appointment with the Paly Wellness Center

How to Take Care of Your

Mental Health in Quarantine 1. Find new ways to connect with others while staying safe. 2. Sign up to take an online class in something totally new. 3. Write; keep a journal of your daily life.

Customization is a secondary method of decorating islands that has a much more peaceful and relaxing experience.

“I like the idea of being able to customize and create your own towns from scratch, and I like the fun of being able to create your own towns and designing them however you want,” Wang said.

In addition, due to the popularity of New Horizons, those who do not want to pay $300 for the Nintendo Switch, the platform New Horizons is played on, are playing more Pocket Camp, a mobile Animal Crossing game.

By Bill Xia

Staff Writer

Every day, sophomore Raj Bapat uses Twitch, a popular video live streaming service, to stay connected with his friends, most of whom he’s never physically met. Bapat said using the platform provides him with a break from the monotonous quarantine life.

With the country shut down due to COVID-19 pandemic, many young people are hopping on their Xboxes, PS4s or computers to play video games to stay virtually connected with their friends.

According to the Business Insider, the number of streamers and viewers on Twitch, a popular game streaming platform, spiked from about 1.1 million viewers before quarantine to 2.5 million in early May.

“I enjoy the gameplay, and sometimes I play with the streamers” Raj Bapat

While many gamers join streams to watch the gameplay, sophomore Max Vroemen said he enjoys watching streams for their social aspects. Isolated from the outside world, students like Vroemen have turned to technology as a way to socialize, using Twitch to help connect with each other.

Vroemen said he often hops on streams to talk with friends or make new ones and said he is using Twitch about three hours per day during the quarantine.

“I prefer Twitch over YouTube because I can chat with my friends and the streamer,” Vroemen said. Vroemen said he also likes that Twitch viewers can ask the streamer to play different game modes or use different weapons to increase viewer engagement.

“We have this small community of regular viewers . . . I’ve become friends with many other viewers.”

Max Vroemen

With the Nintendo Switch nearly sold out everywhere, people are finding it nearly impossible to purchase one. Many students continue to see the free time quarantine has opened up as a way to relieve academic pressure and to stay connected to the community. “It’s a great stress reliever to come back to after I’ve finished all my assignments,” Kuo said. “I’ve been playing more games since the shelter in place because they’re a good way to escape some of the stress in the media while connecting with my friends on

GIANNA BROGLEY/THE CAMPANILE

that can be redeemed to, for example, force the streamer to complete certain challenges like using a bad weapon.

The tight-knit community created with Twitch is a big reason why many viewers hop on day after day for hours, according to Vroemen.

“A few other friends and I go on the same stream, and we joke around and have fun with the streamer for a couple of hours,” Vroemen says.

Other viewers, however, just want to see the gameplay. Hidden under his online alias, Bapat said he also watches streams on Twitch.

“I enjoy the gameplay and sometimes I play with the streamers,” Bapat says.

Using Twitch, some viewers occasionally stream snipe or attempt to join the same match as the streamer. Some stream snipers intend to target or ruin the streamers match while others have no ill intent.

“Stream sniping is really fun because I get to actually be on people’s stream and play with the streamer,” Bapat says.

Twitch has seen rampant growth over the quarantine, as it offers a platform for friends and strangers to connect. The community fostered within Twitch has provided an outlet for people trapped in their homes to congregate and discuss interests in the gaming world.