
Roommates are a part of life, and chances are you’ve had a roommate at least once.
Sometimes, your roommate is a family member — perhaps you shared your childhood bedroom with a sibling. Sometimes, it’s a friend. It’s likely you shared a dorm room with a friend in college. And other times, it’s a complete stranger who you only shared a living space with in order to save on rent.
Whatever the case, having a roommate is sure to make for some interesting experiences. Some of these experiences are good, and some are bad, but one thing is for sure: they’re all unforgettable!
Curious about some of these interesting experiences, Redditor chee-koo asked:
"Redditors, what are your most interesting roommate stories?"
Video Game ASMR
"My South Korean roommate in college played StarCraft (2? not sure) welllll into the night. We're talking like I'd be getting up to go to class and he'd be logging off."
"It cured my insomnia. Listening to a game in a language I didn't understand was very soothing, apparently, and I went from taking 3-4 hours a night to fall asleep (if I would at all) to falling asleep within 30 seconds of laying my head down."
– truthinlies
"Are you saying that to cure my years long insomnia all this time what I needed was not melatonin, plants or all the weird sh*t I've tried, but a South Korean online gamer in the next room?"
– blackd0nuts
"It's weird how sometimes you find something that just WORKS."
– Wolfie_Ecstasy
I'm Jealous!
"I’m pretty sure I used to live with a hobbit."
"-Man about 5'1", curly brown hair, constantly cheerful demeanor"
"-Never wore shoes, inside or out"
"-Literally slept on the floor in what can only be explained as a nest of blankets"
"-Started a garden and encouraged me to eat his tomatoes all the time"
"-Would bring home samosas and other goodies, always giving me half just because"
"-He and his wife had a dream of living off the grid in a tiny home on a truck"
"I hope he’s doing well"
– Opposite_Lettuce
"Tall for a hobbit, otherwise checks out!"
– GielM
Poor Little Rich Girl
"My freshman year roommate was an international student from Dubai. She had maids and help all of her life and didn't know how to do a goddamn thing! Once she ate an apple and tossed the core behind her onto our carpet! I told her I'm not her maid to clean up after her!"
– Turbulent-Mind7128
Killing In His Sleep?
"I used to cook dinner and always made enough to offer to our room mate. He paid his bills and rent always but sometimes he didn't have enough for food so I would cook and say "hey man, wanna have dinner with us?". He would usually say he didn't like whatever I was making. Fastforward to morning...all the leftovers were gone."
"His explanation? He must have been sleepwalking and ate it in his sleep. This happened 15 to 20 times over a year period. Minimum. He would make these big song and dances about how what I was making was gross, so I would put up enough leftovers for two (my boyfriend and I) then go to bed. What was to be lunches for work gone and often dirty utensils in the sink."
"Fast forward another 5 years and he called me at 3 am after not talking to me or my partner for 3 years, and told me my now husband (aforementioned BF)was doing Crack in front of our 4 year old. I called my husband, who was asleep. Neither of us had talked to him in years...what was this?"
"Fast forward another 5 years. He's on death row for killing his roommate. His defense? He did it sleepwalking."
– dissapointingsex
These Things Belong In The Trash
"My roommate once create a whole new lifeform by leaving beans in the fridge until they molded so bad they became pure white. Then she got mad when I threw it away because she was going to use it later."
– Shadow948
"Use it for what? Giving people botulism?"
– Bob_12_Pack
"I had a roommate do that with lasagna in a casserole dish. I eventually tossed it after lifting the lid and looking inside. I didn’t want to touch it and I knew she’d never clean it, so I threw the whole thing in the dumpster, dish and all. When she got home and saw it was gone, she told me I might as well throw her lifeless body in the dumpster too, if that’s how little I thought of her. I was like, “I’ll buy you a new casserole dish, damn.”"
"Neither of us did what we’d said we’d do."
– Calexcia
...Huh?
"Senior year of college I lived with 8 other students in a house, girls upstairs and boys downstairs. One time the boys were really rowdy so I went downstairs to check it out and this girl from my literature class was beating in their fridge with a fire extinguisher. I think I’ve lost the ability to be surprised after that year."
– Mirrorflute88
"I don't understand the meaning of "was beating in their fridge". Was she beatboxing? Was she getting beaten up? Was she attacking the fridge?"
"It would be really cool if somebody could help me with that :)"
– umhassy
Laundry Troubles
"My wife had a roommate who's clothes smelled bad all the time. But they would do laundry together, so they knew that she washed her clothes, but they smelled like they weren't."
"Until one day when they were shopping together, and the roommate said that she had to buy laundry detergent, and then picked up some Downey Soft fabric softener. My wife asked her if she was also going to get detergent, and the roommate replied, "I just did.""
"My wife tried to convince her that fabric softener is not soap, and wouldn't clean your clothes, and the roommate was adamant. "This is what I've always used, and it works great." My wife tried to be nice about how it didn't work, and that her clothes didn't smell good after a day (when the Downey scent would wear off), but nothing she said made a difference."
"I hope that when the roommate got married 12 years ago, her husband was able to convince her to use actual detergent for her clothes.""
– WalmartGreder
Middle Of The Night Thoughts
"My freshman year roommate would think way too much when he was trying to fall asleep and wake me up all the time."
"Like, “Hey man, a lot of people find the person they marry in college. What if I never find that person!!”"
"Me: “huh? It’s 2am, dude, I have class at 8.”"
"“Oh sorry to wake you up, go back to sleep”"
"Five minutes later, he wakes me up again “Unless you’re on fire, then that makes sense.”"
– ThinkIGotHacked
Whoops!
"My flatmate was using the speaker in the living room for playing music, he said he was gonna go shower so he left.
2 minutes later we heard moaning and slapping. He forgot to disconnect from the speaker."
– Terrible-Cost-7741
Thw Worst Mom
"(This is gonna be long, because there's a fuckload to tell.)"
"Ah, my last roomie, J. How to explain her... J was an an*l-retentive b*tch for whom things could not be clean enough. She wasn't a germophobe; she was just a controlling c*nt. For example, she had a glass table near the kitchen where she ate all her normal meals. She had a little boy who was 4ish and a girl who was 7ish. They were not allowed to eat meals with their mother because they might get fingerprints on the glass. Instead, they had to eat on a small wooden kiddie table away from her. One day, her son accidentally knocked over his juice, and she full-on screamed at him while he sobbed and tried to mop it up."
"Other sh*t she pulled:"
"- I accidentally left, no joke, one fucking pinpoint of spaghetti sauce in the microwave one night. She banged on my door at midnight on a work day. And when I answered, she grabbed my arm and marched me downstairs and yelled while I cleaned it."
"- I accidentally forgot one day that I was supposed to take the outdoor trash can to the street. On my way back home from work, I found out my brother was dying, so I was sobbing by the time I got home. When I got there, she had placed the trash can so that I could not get into the garage without moving it to the street. And when I got inside, she was waiting for me. She physically blocked the stairs up to my room and just screamed and screamed while I cried and tried to explain that my goddamn brother was dying."
"- Her (very sweet, no idea how she got such great kids) daughter was in Girl Scouts, and J was the troop's cookie mom. She was SCARY about it. One day, she left an envelope of cash from it on the kitchen counter, and there was NO way I was touching that. Tried to tell her it was out there, but got nowhere. Quite a few people came in and out of the house, including a few contractors, and next time she looked, the cash was gone. Of course (/s), it had to have been my fault, so she threatened me with throwing everything I owned on the lawn and changing the locks. So that I had somewhere to sleep, I just paid her the $80, even though that meant a couple weeks of ramen. Guess where it was? Her kiddo took it to his room and was playing with it. And no, I got zero apology."
"- Did I mention she was a nightmare stage mom? Because she was. She forced her shy daughter into doing a made for tv movie, and then ran around watching her toddler son wrecking the whole set while cooing about how "adorable" he was on "HIS movie set.""
"- She'd found photos in a property her family owned where some asshole early paparazzo had hidden there and taken shots of a very famous and well-regarded, inspirational person's private funeral. For some reason, the pics were left in that property. Her immediate decision? If she can't get at least a few hundred k from auctioning them off, ransom them to the family."
"Biggest lesson? When your roommate's family comes over for dinner, and several of them pull you aside to voice concern for you and ask if she's treating you badly, that's when you spend every waking moment from then on finding a new goddamn place to live, even if it's a street corner."
– ChaoticForkingGood
Faking It
"My first roommate as an adult faked ovarian cancer. Just.... How could someone even DO that?"
"When I was looking for a new place, she waited until I took a shower and got into the computer in my room. (That one's partially on me, because I didn't log out of it before I went off.) She found out I was emailing the person who would be my next roommate, noted the email address, and then sent a bullsh*t-laden email to that person trying to get them to kick me out before I ever moved in."
"She was in-f*cking-sane. By the time I left, I'd have been willing to bet everything I owned that she was on meth. Couldn't prove it, but she 100% acted and looked like it."
"Oh, and did I mention that she turned on a goddamn dime one Saturday and told me that my dog, who she'd previously loved, had to be gone by Monday or else she'd kick ME out? All because my poor baby girl had been abused before I had her, and when that woman yelled at the top of her lungs one day, my little girl peed. So, yeah. I had to call rescue organizations and shelters and give my sweet girl up."
"Also - last one, I swear - she invited a homeless couple to live with us for a bit in return for doing some painting. Please note: I have no problem with this. What I DID have a problem with was that she never asked or even told me about it (and I'd have said yes if she had). She just did it. She also told them that they were welcome to keep anything in the third bathroom that they wanted... Which was my goddamn bathroom. Finding out your makeup is all gone and that someone's pubes are on your soap? SO much fun."
– ChaoticForkingGood
Morally Compromised
"In college, my roommate was majoring in criminal justice, and it threw me for a loop when I found out she was in a gang. (Weird combo.)"
"One day, she asked if a friend of hers could stay with us for a little while. Her friend had just been evicted from her first apartment for not being able to pay. She was 8 months pregnant, and it was winter, so I was alright with it."
"Now, this roommate and her friend would sit there and giggle and gossip from when they got in bed until about 2 AM, juuuuust loudly enough that it kept me up."
"One night, I overheard 80% of a whispered convo between them where they talked about how easy it had been to steal some furniture for the pregnant girl's new place. They started talking about how shitty the books in the bookshelves had been and how they were glad there had been room in the dumpster out back for them. They thought I was asleep."
"Our dorm had a "dorm mom" who was a very sweet 80yo lady whose job was to live with us in the good-sized apartment in the dorm for that use and to make sure we were abiding by the (stupid and outdated) rules. She was a total sweetheart. She actually furnished our common room with her own stuff, out of the kindness of her heart. Bookshelves, books, a sofa, and a TV."
"So when I got up the next morning and headed out, and I saw everyone milling around the now-empty common room, my heart sank. Everyone loved our dorm mom. I checked the dumpster out back, and yep... all of her books were in there. My roommate and her friend had stolen everything in that room in the middle of the night."
"I went straight to the dean. She got at least booted out of the dorms. Don't know if she got kicked out of the college altogether or not, but I still caught hell from the rest of her gang. Fun times."
"Sorry, roomie, not sorry. She made that lovely dorm mom cry."
– ChaoticForkingGood
I Didn't Do It
"My morbidly obese roommate fell in the shower and went through the wall. Sounded like a bomb going off and scared the shit out of me."
"That would be whatever, except a minute later the useless bastard came limping out bleeding and tried to pretend the shower/wall had always been like that. Even when we pointed out he had done the damage, he refused to really acknowledge it."
"Our other roommate was crazy, and refused to get the landlord involved. So, she instead cleaned up the mess and left the hole, saying she'd fix it later herself. When we left (about a year later), she just gorilla glued some cardboard up over the hole and then glued the tiles back on over it."
"I'll admit it actually didn't look terrible. You probably wouldn't notice unless you really looked."
– Broski225
If Only She Could Sleep
"One time I woke to two voices in my college doom room."
"I saw that my roommate had a guy with her in bed. From what I remember, there was kissing but I don't know what else. I had no idea when he got there."
"I didn't know what to do so I just pretended to sleep until they were gone. They finally left close to noon. As they were heading out, the guy goes, "wow, your roommate sure is tired." My roommate: "yeah, she sleeps a lot.""
"Couldn't help but feel a little peeved by that."
– purplealchemist
Duck!
"My roommate threw a meat cleaver at me because I told her I didn't want to talk to her because we were fighting."
– livetimefe
I'd Run
"I moved in with a couple. She was VERY obviously pregnant but denied it. They had 7 pet rats, which I was chill with. Their bed was on the floor so the rats could sleep with them, cool. Whatever you’re into, not for me to judge. The rat poop that was EVERYWHERE in the house was an issue. In the tub, in the wash machine, outside their room in their shoes. My final straw was when I baked 15 DOZEN butter tarts for Xmas gifts cuz I was a broke 20-year-old and they ATE THEM ALL in one evening and that night she went into labour and had the baby she definitely wasn’t pregnant with and demanded I give up the home office I paid extra for each month to do my work from for her new not baby But keep paying for it."
– notanaltaccount88
Yes, roommates are a part of life, but some of these experiences make me glad that part of my life is in the past!
We've all met those people who try to not-so-subtly slip into conversation that they are wealthy or "cultured," and it always feels ingenuine and cringey to witness.
It almost makes us feel bad to think about how hard they're trying to appear better off than everyone else. Almost.
Redditor LandPiranha63 asked:
"What's something that screams 'pretentious'?"
Foodie Culture
"People that say, 'I'm a foodie,' like SMH (shaking my head), just order your food and sit down."
"I loved how 'The Menu' movie poked fun at foodie culture. I have a few friends like this, and it drives me nuts."
"My girlfriend and I went to dinner with them at a hyped restaurant. We had all been there before and they are known for a particular dish. It was good, but I really like their cheeseburger (kinda like the movie)."
"My friends poked fun at me for going there to order a cheeseburger. It was the best entree and they changed their tune."
- destroys_burritos
Fancy Coffee Orders
"Someone called me pretentious yesterday. I nearly choked on my honey-cardamom latte."
- MrDagon007
Wine Tasting
"My brother once took me out to a fancy dinner for my birthday. He asked to taste the white wine, so the waiter gave him a sip in his glass."
"He swirled it around, held it up to the light, smelled it deeply, then took the sip in his mouth, slurped air through it, swished it around in his mouth, and then finally swallowed."
"He turned to the waiter and said, 'I don't know s**t about wine, but I like it. Two glasses, please!'"
"I was so embarrassed, but it was also very funny."
- PiDiddleMiDiddle
Purse Dogs
"Remember when girls used to carry around chihuahuas in their purses as a fashion trend?"
"Thank goodness accessorizing dogs like that isn't popular anymore."
- LandPiranha63
Unnecessary Ingredients
"Using expensive ingredients that are only expensive because they are expensive (edible gold is a big example)."
"When they do not have any noticeable impact on either the taste, nutritional content, or the environmental or ethics of the food. It's just wasteful."
- Narutophanfan1
Fast Fashion
"Judging me for shopping consignment for my kids. I would never spend $40 on a GAP sweatshirt for myself, let alone for my fast-growing kids. But $3? H**l yeah."
- cjati
Pretentious Music Notes
"When you tell someone you don't like a band, and they claim you just can't comprehend the music."
"Same with movies. If you don’t like a movie that they like, they will say you just didn’t get it. But no, I got it, I just thought it was s**t."
- wmgh
High-End Burger Joints
"When it's a restaurant that doesn't have combo plates when it feels like it should, like a burger restaurant that sells fries separately."
"I f**king hate that. And of course, the side of fries is six or more dollars, like what the f**k?! They’re fries, right?!"
- trogloherb
Genre Snobs
"People who s**t on genres of music that aren't their favorite one. You might be surprised to learn that there are as many pretentious metalheads, rap fans, rock fans, and jazz fans who are just as pretentious as snobby classical music 'listeners.' Luckily these kinds of pretentious music aficionados are in the minority in every music scene."
- Majestic-Love-9312
Law Students
"Harvard students/grads who invariably drop the H Bomb or say they 'went to school in Boston' within the first three sentences after meeting them."
- Edward_the_Dog
Summer Days
"Using 'summer' as a verb."
"Like, 'Well, we live in Los Angeles, but we summer in Martha's Vineyard.'"
- ppardee
Instagram-Worthy
"Intentionally including the words 'Business Class' part of your ticket in your strategically staged photo at the airport.
Table shot with wine glass and ticket showing and captioning it, 'Oh, I LOVE this wine!'"
- suibhnesuibhne
Luxury Styling
"Luxury clothing with the brands logo all over it."
- BreadfruitPhysical26
Language Affectations
"My cousin who rolls every 'R' on a word that she says in Spanish, like burrrrrrito, but not other words with two R's."
"She's been to Puerto Rico twice."
- 001235
Hypocritical
"People who complain about the smallest things and act like they can do better when they truly can’t."
- shadow_master3210
Many of these behaviors left the subReddit cringing just thinking about it, but the one thing they could absolutely agree on? These definitely screamed of being pretentious.
Thanks to many inquisitive researchers throughout our world's history, many of life's greatest phenomena have been solved and explained.
But even with the plethora of resources available at our fingertips detailing how things work or why they came to existence, some scientific facts remain baffling.
Curious to hear examples of what makes our planet so unique and astounding, Redditor rambojambo11 asked:
"What is a cool scientific fact that you know that sounds unbelievable?"
Our unique environment still holds great mysteries.
Superior Body Of Water
"Lake Superior can hold all of the water from the rest of the Great Lakes combined with room to spare."
"This is more geography, but it always blows my mind when looking at a map that the continent of South America is almost entirely east of the United States."
– Marty_Eastwood
Infrared Light
"Infrared light was discovered all the way back in 1800. By accident. With a thermometer."
"William Herschel (who also discovered Uranus) was experimenting with a prism. He wanted to see if different colors of light had different temperatures. So he had the room completely dark except a beam of light hitting a prism and casting a rainbow onto the table. He had placed thermometers in each color band to see if there was a difference. As a control, he had an additional thermometer past the end of the light below the red band."
"Except when he compared his readings, he got something strange: the control thermometer was reading the highest temperature of all. This didn't make any sense. Was his thermometer faulty? He tried a few more tests with more thermometers in other places and came to an inescapable conclusion: there must be an additional invisible "color" below red that carried more heat than any of the visible colors. He named it infrared, which just literally means 'below red'."
– sharrrper
Who's Our Guide?
"GPS tracking is not the satellites tracking the object, but the object tracking the satellites."
– UnethicalFood
Making Waves
"The first radio signal broadcasted by humans to (unintentionally) escape the Earth's ionosphere was Hitler's opening address at the 1936 Summer Olympics."
– jx3z_o
All creatures great and small are miracles of earth.
The Ultimate Pre-Dator
"Sharks pre-date trees."
– Suuperdad
Sentient Prick
"because of evolutionary caution of being eaten by the larger females, male octopus can detach his penis and quite literally throw it at his woman."
"and if that is not even impressive weird enough, that detached penis has a brain on its own, programmed to stalk the female like a f'king terminator until she is inseminated!"
"these creatures are next-level mental!"
– Lord-Legatus
Safe Licking
"Giraffes’ tongues are black and purple to prevent sunburn while they’re feeding up high."
– aprilmayjunejuly21
This Is Hard To Swallow
"A species of fruit fly holds the record for the biggest sperm cells. Drosophila bifurca has sperm that are 5.8cm long. The body length of the males is about 3mm long."
– Salvelinus_alpinus
Burning Passion
"Female ferrets die if they don't find a partner to make with. Since they don't leave "Heat" Until they're mated with, the Oestrogen overload leads to Anemia, and death."
– TheEyeOfLight
Biology is fascinating.
Tiny Organ
"Some people have extra spleen or liver that are pea sized."
– iremovebrains
Home Invasion
"The immune system does not encounter viruses and formulate an antibody that matches its shape. Instead, the immune system pumps out random antibodies that sometimes happen to match a virus it comes into contact with, and then begins to produce more of that specific antibody."
– davilambic
These impressive scientific facts are just the tip of the iceberg. There are still many more out there that are jaw-dropping.
With so many scientifically proven facts approved and accepted by the scientific community, the most confounding fact remains that there are communities that deny proven data and information–especially ones that are capable of benefitting mankind.
They say opposites attract.
Though, in order for any couple to have good chemistry, they will likely have to see eye to eye on certain things.
Or, at the very least, be open to hearing their spouse's side of things in order to avoid constant arguments.
In all likelihood, though, even married couples who seem to have more in common than not will still disagree about something.
Possibly something small, like preferring the beach to the mountains for a vacation, or indeed something more fundamental, like religious or political beliefs.
A difference of opinion neither side is ever likely to change.
"Married men of reddit, what is one thing you and your wife have completely different opinions about?
Or Blue and Black, or White and Gold?...
"Whether any given thing that we are looking at is green or blue."- ThingThatsJustBegun
Plans Of Attack
"How to spend our vacation."
"My wife is the kind to plan a whole itinerary of things to do while visiting a place."
"I, on the other hand, just want to sleep in, eat all the food that I can't eat at home, and actually relax."
"Don't get me wrong, I wanna sight see, visit touristy things, and buy souvenirs, but to have back-to-back planned events for the whole trip can be exhausting."
"Knowing these differences, however, we compromise."
"I know I can't stay at the hotel all day, and she knows that we can't go out every minute."
Check "So we plan events and plan for relaxation ."- TheQuantumRed
Everyone Needs Their Personal Space...
"What constitutes her half of the bed."- Joks_away·
Relaxing For Some, Terrifying For Others...
"The idea that true crime documentaries are a great sleeping aid."
"For her maybe, but I'm the one lying awake getting freaked out by all the stories of people killing their partners for the life insurance payout."- Stu_Thom4s
There Is A Difference Between Dirty And Messy...
"The definition of 'clean'."- papasnork
Time Is Not To Be Wasted...
"Promptness.":
"My wife god bless her cant be on time for sh*t."- Real-Problem6805
Not All Items Are Multi Purpose
"The bed."
"I think it’s a bed, and she thinks it’s a table to store all manner of things, buried and twisted under various blankets."
"Her: 'I can’t find the remote!'"
"Me: 'Have you checked the Sleeping Table?'"- Lil_MRSA
Multitasking Or Procrastinating?
"Closing the loop on practical jobs."
"I like to completely finish a single task before I start another, even if this is sometimes a bit inefficient."
"Mainly because I have a bad memory and will probably forget to finish it later."
"She likes to do about 20% of seven jobs and then gradually nudge each one towards completion over days or weeks."- stevedocherty
People Go To Great Lengths For Their Passions
"Horses."
"My wife is a successful woman and yet still lives paycheck to paycheck just so she can ride a horse."
"Baffling."- kudatimberline
...I Think Some Explanation Is Needed...
"I just have to say dishwasher right?"
"No explanation necessary?"- LeadingAd5273
How To Spend Time In Front Of A Screen
"Video games."
"She hates them and thinks they do nothing but rot the brain, I grew up playing them and still do."
"On the flip side, she absolutely loves drama tv shows."
"I find them to be the most nauseating shows ever made."
"Therefore, when she watches her shows, I go play video games."
"It allows for neither of us to complain about the others favorite past time."- Bearded_Wonder0713
Humor Is Subjective
"The objective hilarity of my off the cuff jokes."- BobRoberts01
The Great Outdoors Isn't For Everyone...
"I’m a woman, but my husband and I disagree on camping."
"I enjoy camping and I love how cheaply I can travel while camping."
"We took a 15 day vacation a couple of years ago where we stayed in state parks the whole time."
"Our TOTAL accommodations cost was $400."
"He hates it."
"He can’t do the constant dirt, trying to set up camp and cook in the rain, etc."
"He usually puts up with it for about a week each year to humor me and so we can do family vacations on our tight budget, but he is suuuuuper done by the end of that week."- etds3
Music To Some, Noise To Others...
"Rock music."
"She doesn't get it, whereas I grew up listening to it."- thecookietrain
Not Everyone Likes To Lend A Hand
"I like to contribute to group outings, if I’m asked to bring something I’m happy to and like to get a good things people will love. She hates being asked to bring things and will get the bare minimum if we don’t have anything in the cupboards."- Smirknlurking
Compatibility is an important factor in any relationship.
Then again, it's a sign of love in it's absolute truest form when people can overlook the things which drive absolutely crazy.
Teachers Break Down The Biggest Differences In Students Before And After The Pandemic
One never usually expects every kid to be excited to go to school.
But when children all over the world were forced to finish their school years from home when the pandemic hit in 2020, they all might have realized that they might have enjoyed the ins and outs of school a bit more than they thought.
So, as schools started to gradually re-open, children practically couldn't wait to get back into a classroom.
For the most part, that is.
While many proud parents and teachers posted many happy pictures of children joyously returning to their classrooms, in no time at all, students quickly realized that going to school was going to be a completely different experience than before the pandemic.
Even today, when most, if not all, schools have dropped the protocols they implemented when re-opening after the pandemic, teachers have noticed changes big and small in the behavior of their students.
"Teachers of Reddit, what are the biggest differences you've seen in your students pre and post pandemic?
The Effects Of A Change In Envrionment
"High school teacher here."
"These kids hit two major disruptions: Going remote, and coming back."
"Most kids learned almost no content when teaching was remote."
"There are always those few who will learn no matter what, but honestly, having the ability to have a video game or fun website on in a different tab with no one able to tell was too big a temptation."
"Not to mention the kids who were forced into childcare roles of younger relatives during school hours, or those in families that had more people than tech and had to prioritize who could work when."
"Some amazing kids rose to the occasion, other kids just acted like regular kids."
"They are slowly recovering now."
"But a significant minority did better when school was remote."
"One girl had a hard time focusing, so she brought her phone into the kitchen and cooked all period while also answering all the questions and participating in all the activities."
"And one boy, for whom socialization was the hardest thing, burned through online classes once he wasn't held back by having to deal with people."
"These kids had a much harder time on their return (and unfortunately in the boy's case, his success during remote school meant some of his services were taken away only for him to crash and burn once he was brought back)."- HobbitInHufflepuff
Deadlines Lost Their Meaning
"A lot of students got used to not handing in work on time or at all."
"During the pandemic kids were getting passes because of tech problems and so on."
"We were told just mark it down as incomplete and move on."
"No reason was needed to be given."
"Now I'm finding that when I give a project and tell them to work on it at home, I have, at best, half my kids who will and the others are shocked that I was being serious."
"It will be interesting to see if they get back into the swing of things as time moves on."- thejonfrog
Change In Attention Span
"As a high school teacher in Australia (which is notorious for how we screwed up our latest Internet upgrade), I've noticed students might have a shorter attention span overall, but boy, do they switch on and pay attention for the first 10 minutes."
"It's fricking eerie."
"Welcome, but eerie."- joalheagney
"Post pandemic students have even shorter attention spans."
"Distractions are a major problem."
"Getting back into the structure and focus of in-person learning has been more difficult than expected."- StanYelnats3·
Lack of Enthusiasm
"To put things into perspective, I am a chemistry teacher."
"There are big gaps in knowledge, especially mathematical."
"Asking basic algebraic questions leaves a lot of blank faces when in previous years it was a non-issue for most students."
"The attention span has dropped to almost nothing."
"In previous years it was understood that cellphones shouldn't be out and if you were on a Chromebook you should be doing work."
"That's a huge issue at the moment."
"Almost everyone seems burned out."
'While there are still a few exceptions, there seems to be an overall desire to not be in class that I have not seen."
"Before, it was always an issue in the beginning of the year but would subside as we got to interesting stuff."
"I have not felt motivated to do the interesting stuff this year (I still am) because they show just as much enthusiasm as when I just give a worksheet."- youritalianjob
Delays Of All Sorts
"Elementary academic intervention specialist (mostly upper elementary) here."
"Most notable differences:"
"Selayed handwriting skills."
"Better at using technology."
"Social-emotional maturity delays."
"More difficulty with delayed gratification."
"Higher interest in time for peer interaction."
"Less proficiency in self regulation."
"Higher anxiety."- tiny_butt_toucher
Volume Control Issues
"Besides the obvious ones, something that I didn’t expect was that they are so loud."
"They’re completely unaware of how much noise they make."
"Pre-pandemic, even young kids were used to being in public places where they had to be quiet."
"School, church, libraries, movies, etc."
"As soon as we came back in person, it became extremely evident that these kids had spent the past two years in the comforts of their own homes and on classes with mute buttons."
"Even if they’re just sitting there doing their work, they’ll tap their hands, feet, pencils, they’ll hum to themselves, they’ll make any and all noises far beyond what I had ever seen before."
"And it’s really hard to get them to stop, because they don’t even realize they’re doing it."
"I teach second grade."- nctm96
Disinterest in Extracurriculars
"Involvement in extracurriculars is at an all time low."
"Fine Arts programs are failing due to student numbers, lack of teachers and funding."
"Programs are being cut at all levels."
"Not enough students are joining and there are not enough teachers for the students who do."
"Great times."- Akairichii
It's Not Just The Children Who Have Changed
"Inner city teacher here."
"As others have said, the attention span is lower."
"Many kids don't watch tv, they just play on their phone."
"Most may watch a show while being on their phone."
"It's all about next content."
"Something else is the spoon feeding they want."
"If a quick google search doesn't give an immediate answer, it's hopeless."
"They won't click a link to read three paragraphs to find an answer, they want google to give them the paragraph out of context, with the bolded part."
"On top of this is parents."
"Kids in many new aspects have a relationship with their parents that is friend based and not parent-child."
"Kids run wild and do what they please with little repercussions."
"Parents expect you, the teacher, to drive their kids even though we see the kid for an hour a day."
"It's all just passing the buck."- Parki2
Teachers often notice changes in certain children after they return from two months of summer vacation.
So changes were expected when children returned to school after the world shut down as a result of the pandemic.
Making one realize all the more how important it is to recognize how teachers are among the most "essential" workers of them all.