There’s an interesting online trend that emerged at the height of quarantine this year, with students from all over the world posting hours-worth of footage recording themselves studying. It first came out at the beginning of lockdown, just after schools were physically closed and online classes were starting to be implemented across different countries.

Vlogs have steadily grown its market since the early days of YouTube, and now generates hundreds of thousands of views for 30-minute videos following a person’s daily life. The trend has mutated to a whole new form of content with “study with me” vlogs.

As the name suggests, “study with me” videos are literally uncut footage of students doing school work. Some vlogs have lo-fi tracks playing to keep the chill, productive vibes going, while others use no music at all and just rely on real-world background noise like rain, and shuffling pages, to name a few. It features minimal dialogue, with maybe a short intro and outro to inform viewers what the creator’s requirements are, if any.

Seeing that these types of videos garner at least ten thousand views per release, it’s safe to assume that a lot of people just want that old feeling of “studying with someone” back. As we all know, studying for hours takes a heavy toll on our mental health, which is why a lot of us resort to joining study groups, library sessions, and review classes to be surrounded by people going through the same thing.

The rising trend of these “study with me” vlogs perfectly reflect that, as thousands tune in to work alongside creators online for a sense of solidarity without the need to speak, or even have any interaction at all with one another. It’s also very interesting to see how this human behavior has seeped into the virtual world in a time where we’re all in dire need of some reminder that we’re not alone.

As digital class requirements start to get more demanding and time-consuming with the end of the school year approaching for most students, it’s just the perfect accompaniment for long study sessions otherwise done alone. If you want to feel even more like you’re virtually studying with someone, a lot of people also do livestreams on YouTube and Twitch that you can join in on in real-time.

Here are some videos that you can start with:

SHAYNE UY’S UST MED STUDY WITH ME

YZABELLE L.’S HOW TO STUDY FOR CETS QUARANTINE VLOG

GUTSY STUDYGIRL’S RAINY DAY STUDY WITH ME

TAN YI’S 2-HOUR STUDY WITH ME

130MOOD’S 2-HOUR REAL-TIME STUDY WITH ME

KHARMA MEDIC’S 7-HOUR POMODORO SESSION