College Students, COVID-19, and Homegrown Extremism

It is relatively lonely back home from Georgetown. Georgetown is where I talked alongside friends, pondered alongside professors, and walked alongside a myriad of others who all wanted to learn as much as we could about the world around us. The pain of having hundreds of pages to read and dozens of pages to write, and just not enough time in the day weighed down on every one of us, but every semester we got through it together.

Now? I’m back home in Indiana, a place as different from Washington D.C. as can be. I know that my friends in Oklahoma, or Minnesota, or any other state (or country!) are feeling a similar way. And we are not alone. Upwards of 14 million college students are currently home, and I assure you many of them are fearing the coronavirus, which, when mixed with social isolation, may be the most disastrous cocktail any college student has ever had (and for some college students, that’s saying something.)

Add in a sprinkle of loneliness, and you get a 15% increase in internet usage, most of which is spent on poorly-regulated forums and social media. And as many of us know, when we are lonely, we search for answers. This phenomenon is especially true for college students, who, in a way, are being taught in school to ask questions and actively seek out the answers.

But in class, we are guided by a professor and reined in by our peers. Alone, we are unbounded, search for the answers as to why we are so lonely, why we are struggling, and why our world has been upended so quickly.

We are vulnerable.

On unregulated forums and social media, far-right extremists use our vulnerabilities against us. They give us something to hate, and being mad at something can sometimes feel really good. (Many college students are familiar with the joy of cursing out a professor after a test or blaming the refs at sports games.) Extremist groups have the ability and the drive to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, especially online. The coronavirus pandemic uniquely plays into the “end of days” extremist trope, where only white supremacist regimes can save us.

Moreover, college students are tuned in to the world and our governments. For us, the government is failing. Not only is there a lack of ventilators and masks, but we all follow closely as the number of coronavirus cases and deaths get larger exponentially. Moreover, we are effectively left out of the 2.2 trillion dollar stimulus package due to us still being dependents in the eyes of the taxing authorities. Extremist groups thrive in the face of perceived government failure, as they see our distress and try to offer themselves as the sole solution to the chaos.

Even the Islamic State recently claimed that the coronavirus was a punishment against the West for their behavior in the Middle East. This newsletter was circulated online for all to see.

As a dangerous consequence, college students are at risk of spending hours on the unregulated internet and facing extremist language and propaganda. While at school, we may be able to understand that these newsletters and speeches are propaganda. At home, when we are vulnerable, there is a higher chance of falling victim to the hate.

The solution? We must prevent this loneliness from occurring in the first place. This can be done through several different channels, which vary on who you are and what your role is.

To all my fellow college students, be conscious of this phenomenon. Consciously aim to avoid it, and if you do stumble across it, take the time to recognize what it truly is: propaganda. Ask yourself, would my professor accept this if I were to cite it on my final paper?

Moreover, reach out to your friends just as often as you would if on campus. My friends and I have taken to Zoom once a week to catch us and play games such as Spyfall or Secret Hitler online. I highly recommend it. I’d also recommend the Facebook group, Zoom Memes for Self-Quaranteens. In that group, we all are suffering, but we are suffering together.

To all parents of college students, check in on your child. Make sure they’re getting enough sleep at a reasonable hour. Many of us, including myself, are slowly becoming nocturnal, and as my mother still tells me once a month, “nothing good ever happens after two in the morning.”

The first step is to be conscious of this threat. The second is to come together and defeat it.