If you’re anything like me, the pandemic really put a damper on my social life, including interacting with people in my classes. But, here’s one thing that’s remained (kind of) the same: class crushes.

Hear me out for a second.

Class crushes are the people that you thought were super attractive in your classes, whether it be their looks or the way they thoughtfully answered the discussion questions, they were just a crush. If anything, a fleeting crush that you knew would end by the time the semester wrapped up.

So class crushes were never super serious, it was more of a thing to distract yourself while your professors droned on and on about whatever unit you were on that week. They were a good way to make class time a bit more fun and gave me something to look forward to.

But as we continue into the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems as if it still might take a while before students step foot into a classroom like before.

But when push comes to shove, fear not, Zoom has some tools to keep your class crushes going strong!

As classes have been becoming more explorative when it comes to the Zoom video calls we take, there are some new features that may just help some of you guys out when it comes to your own Zoom class crushes.

For starters, you can actually switch around the gallery view so that a specific box can be put towards the front. 

By clicking on a participant’s window and dragging it, you can personalize your screen.

If you lack any shame of having a class crush (or at least of letting your professor know you have one), then you can pin videos on Zoom! 

By pinning participant videos, the specific window becomes the highlighted and larger video on your screen.

The downsides to this option is that the host (so most likely your professor) will get a file stating that you pinned someone’s video. Along with that, pinning videos isn’t really a great option if you wear glasses to class since the reflection of your screen may just give away your little secret. 

Hopefully there will come a time when we can all start having crushes on people in our classes that we have actually seen from the waist down, but until then, these Zoom tips will suffice.

Featured Image designed by Kara Fields