POV: Athea Koester

Sophomore Athea Koester also believes groupthink and socializing at an early age affect one’s current experiences.

“In kindergarten and first grade, socializing is really important, but also for a lot of students, they might not be ready,” Koester said. “If they didn’t enjoy socializing at a young age, they might still not like it now. If they did have positive experiences with it at a young age, they might like to be more social… but it also doesn’t affect your personality in some ways. I didn’t have bad experiences, but I am still an introvert.”

Koester noted that frequent group activities in school are not as suitable for introverts as they are for extroverts, adding that online learning and working with others this year felt overstimulating for her.

“I think online school requires less effort than talking to people at school, but at the same time, it’s draining because you’re talking to people you don’t know well at all,” Koester said. “And you have to constantly prove to the teacher that you’re engaged by talking to them; even if you finish a discussion and you have nothing else to say, the teacher will come into your breakout room and ask, ‘Are you guys done talking?'”