By the fall of 2020, many of the seniors at Oakland Technical High School had become nocturnal.
Already confined to their homes for half a year and desperate for fun, they stayed up all night. They were making TikToks, watching porn, playing Fortnite. In the monotony of the pandemic lockdown, “time didn’t matter, I suppose,” said Nadav Stamper-Kurn, so they found ways to socialize even if they were alone. Nadav built a bespoke server to play Minecraft with friends and viewed simulations of the life he was not able to participate in. He watched the YouTuber David Dobrik travel and party with his jokester crew, and all nine seasons of “The Office.”
Ruby Chan-Frey, perpetually not studying for the SAT and then marinating in her stress, frequently watched movies with friends on Discord until sunrise. Eventually, she took up running, setting out at 11 p.m. When she returned at 1 a.m., she’d sometimes encounter her father in the kitchen. “I’d be like, ‘Oh. Hey,’” she told me.
Oakland Tech had gone “remote only” in March, and the dullness was suffocating. The school day, just three hours long, started at 9. Distance learning was both ridiculously easy and excruciatingly hard: In these extenuating circumstances, teachers had simplified the material so no one would fail, but for many students, remaining attentive to Zoom felt impossible, like climbing glass. Nadav had two monitors on his desk. On one he would be “present,” camera on. On the other he would be watching the Oakland A’s. Ruby couldn’t focus at all. She would log on, say a few words in class to establish her presence, then turn off her camera and go back to sleep.
Ruby’s friend Veronica Liu entered her senior year with earnest intentions. A first-generation college-bound student with excellent grades, she imagined herself a shoo-in at Berkeley. She made a desk by pulling a folding table up to the edge of her twin bed. But by Thanksgiving, the desk was so covered with debris — papers and binders, a rock garden, her sticker collection, plushies, masks, K-pop fan memorabilia and food wrappers — that Veronica had to take a running jump to get into bed. She started attending class with her mic muted and the sound off, her camera pointed upward so that only her forehead showed on the screen. Veronica felt trapped.