Quiet! I’m Cramming for Finals—By Watching Someone Else Study

Some students may feel isolated when they’re up late studying. Having a video on in the background can feel like having a study buddy.

“I think the people making these videos are tapping into a need where you want to be social without being disrupted from your study goals,” says Mitchell Nathan, professor of educational psychology and learning sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Think of it like parallel play. This is parallel studying: You’re ignoring each other, but that’s still much more preferable than doing it all by yourself.”