Anyone else's 16/17 year olds struggling?

[happymummy2010]

My DS (16) moved to a new Sixth Form college in Sept. Due to the ongoing Covid restrictions he seems to be having lots of falling outs with his new friends. They have never had the opportunity to meet up outside college to get to know each other and all social contact is done online which seems to be leading to lots of mini arguments, misunderstandings and conflict.
They never had the opportunity to attend the usual fresher events which take place to help build new friendships as they were all cancelled.

I feel for them all so much. I would love nothing more than to suggest they meet up and go to the cinema or bowling just to clear the air, but sadly that's not possible.

With the prospect of not returning to college in January, I can see the amount of time they spend socialising online only increasing over the next couple of months with no real contact.

Any other teens struggling with lack of real social contact ?

Socially: Mine is lucky in that he works (4 hrs/week) with 2 friends and knew them from high school, anyway. He plays games online with other people, too, and they are allowed small study sessions at the college (nominally distanced, but all in one large room).

Academically: I'm worried about mine disengaging & checking out of education completely. DS has many admirable traits and has improved enormously from being a difficult child who engaged even less, but self-disciplined & self-starter he is not. He needs the daily contact & structure to engage best with A-levels. He only does homework or revision at very last minute so he won't just self-manage suddenly. He needs the support of teachers to have a chance at developing or improving study skills. He needs to see others sitting in classroom trying to learn. He needs the social cues to want to engage himself. I doubt DS is unusual in struggling to engage with studies in absence of lots of daily structure, homework, etc.

Yes absolutely. And although she hated her old school in the end she sees it with rosy memories and talks endlessly about how it's great. Friendships are difficult, school work is going really well but then she was in school, if there's closures now she's on 6th form courses she's never studied before and I fear she'll give up if she doesn't understand stuff due to having no face to face. She's becoming snappier daily and bickers with my dh daily. He's stuck at home so both of them are on each others nerves when she should be out having fun or in a little job.