Photo/Illutration High school students wearing surgical masks maintain a safe distance from each other during a choral club practice. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Meet the COVID-19 generation: That’s the moniker high schoolers in Japan have adopted after three years of severe disruptions to their studies and life away from classrooms.

A study by the education think tank Recruit Shingaku Soken found that respondents nationwide were apt to refer to their generation by names linked to the novel coronavirus.

Generation Z was the second most popular nickname favored by the teenagers.

The findings also revealed that young people today believe they are poor at communicating with others in person and became dependent on the internet during the global health crisis.

The study in August received 1,700 responses from high school students looking to enroll in universities, junior colleges or technical schools. The results were released Dec. 7.

A free-answer section was provided to allow students to give a name to their generation.

Virus-inspired labels were suggested by 10.7 percent, the largest portion of respondents. They ranged from “the generation heavily stricken by the coronavirus” to “the generation that was deprived of its affluent school life by the coronavirus.”

Schools across Japan were closed when the current crop of third-year high schoolers graduated from junior highs. Many educational institutes were compelled to repeatedly suspend all or some of their classes in the same grades as a precaution against the virus.

Club activities were restricted and educational trips were scrapped.

Generation Z was cited by 8.8 percent of the respondents while 6.9 percent chose a title related to the internet, online addiction or digital technology.

The most cited disadvantage unique to their generation was their “inability to socialize and converse well,” which was selected by 9.7 percent of respondents. That was followed by 5.8 percent who pointed to their “dependence on the internet and social media and troubles related to them.”

Asked about the advantages, most, at 22.0 percent, reckoned they excelled at using the “internet and social media.”

“High school students are proficient in operating digital devices, and at the same time are aware of their online addiction,” said Hiroshi Kobayashi, director of Recruit Shingaku Soken. “They believe they lack skills when it comes to conversing directly with others, in part because chatting in person was so restricted by the coronavirus outbreak.”

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