Bad Internet, Bad Student? No, But It Feels That Way

Lyle is 12. His flat-brim Quicksilver cap is too big, so he keeps it pulled halfway down his forehead. His straight blond hair outlines the sides of his face like a picture frame. He has an oversized poster of the ocean on his wall. He looks like a surfer dude.

While he’s at “remote” school, he’s usually alone in his room, but sometimes he turns his attention to the side, mouthing words to someone offscreen. It’s not a disruption because he remembers to keep his mic muted, except when he’s called on. "He’s a good student that way," says Mr. Strickland, Lyle's teacher (not their real names).

“If we were in a classroom, Lyle would be a star student,” Mr. Strickland says. “He would be the guy who buoys everyone’s spirit and keeps the class excited. I think of him as one of those ‘glue’ kids, the ones who get everyone else connected. Instead, despite my best efforts and the patience of his classmates, he has all but shut down.”

Lyle’s portal into distance learning is a low-end Chromebook, on loan from his school and courtesy of their California school district. The district has been exemplary in making sure every student has a laptop and a hotspot. But there is only so much they can do, and Lyle's internet connection is consistently weak.

“When I call on him in class, the audio is choppy, the connection is bad, you have to strain to understand him. I’m always asking him to repeat himself,” Mr. Strickland says. “I can’t help being frustrated, but I try to hide it. I’ve got thirty-odd kids listening and trying not to interrupt and correct him. I have to set an example to remind everyone, Lyle included, that it’s not his fault.”

“I have to force myself to call on him,” Mr. Strickland says. “It’s horrible to admit, but sometimes I wish he wouldn’t raise his hand.”

Halo effects

Sadly, Mr. Strickland may get his wish. In the first three weeks of school, as Lyle has struggled to communicate, he’s been raising his hand less and less. “His natural enthusiasm is starting to fade,” Mr. Strickland says.

Remote learning has introduced a new hurdle for students and teachers: Zoom quality. Some kids are easy to see and hear online. Others are not, for reasons like subpar internet, 2nd-rate computers, broken microphones, bad lighting, dying batteries, and a million other issues. The same goes for teachers. And everyone gets judged.

Psychologists talk about “halo” effects, where knowing one good thing about a person makes everything about them seem wonderful. You might remember the halo effect if you ever marveled at the magic of something your first crush did (“the way she opens a ziplock bag is incredible”). The other side of the coin (devil horn effects?), is that one bad thing about a person can make everything else about them seem worse.

Internet quality and judgments of people: the data

Halo effects happen with internet connection quality, too. My colleagues and I published a study in 2017 where we showed participants videos of four job interviews. Two videos were of high quality; the other two simulated bad internet, with a grainy image that kept freezing. (The sound was always audible, so participants could always understand what was said.)

When we asked our participants whom they would hire, they clearly preferred the job candidates with good-quality video. Everything was counterbalanced—the videos could be assigned to either condition—so it couldn’t have been because of the actual candidates. There is only one explanation for this finding: Judgments of people are influenced by the quality of their internet.

Halo Effect Essential Reads

A Deep Dive Into Human Vulnerability

The Halo Effect: What It Is and How to Beat It

By the way, in our study, we didn’t mess with the audio (except adding a little white noise). In reality, the problem might be bigger than what we found, because, in real life, the sound gets messed up a lot, and that’s actually the most annoying part.

We did a second study where we warned our participants not to be fooled by internet quality. The warning had no effect. This means there’s no easy fix. Moreover, it told us that this whole process is unconscious. It doesn't feel like there’s something wrong with the person’s internet, it feels like there’s something wrong with the person. Every interaction with them is annoying, so you end up thinking they are annoying.

Inequality

Hopefully, that won’t happen to Lyle. But it might. He didn’t do anything wrong. But his teachers and peers might think less of him because of his internet problems. That’s just human nature.

Things look even worse from Lyle’s perspective. Internet problems make it so that everyone he talks to, inducing teachers and classmates, is choppy and laggy and hard to understand. Lyle’s liable to dislike everyone. He might find it increasingly difficult to like school. Mr. Strickland is working hard, in class and behind the scenes, to help Lyle and other kids like him, but he is also worried about them.

These problems increase inequality. Remote school is hard on everyone, no question. But poorer kids tend to have the poorer tech. Those kids might end up disliking school more, and staying engaged less, than their wealthier peers. This could increase drop-out rates and achievement gaps.

Remote learning has created many problems. Internet connection quality is not the worst of them. But it is an invisible problem that we—especially teachers—should be aware of.

What can you do?

One thing that might help—and this goes for teachers and students—is, try to make your own internet work as well as possible. Set up your computer near the wifi. Try to make sure your lighting is good. If there’s too much background noise, maybe try to scrounge up a microphone. Try to avoid downloading big files (don’t update Fortnite!) during school. (If you have the luxury of going to a library or asking your aunt to buy you a laptop, maybe do that too.)

The more fluent your connection is, the more positive an experience everyone around you will have. And hopefully, so will you. It won’t solve the problem but it might help.