As someone who mostly had mediocre teachers in college, and was frankly significantly smarter than most of his classmates, I probably skipped 60-70% of all of my college lectures, because the professors would post the lecture slides online and (most) of them didn't bug me about attendance, and my only regret is that I couldn't skip more. I got to know my fellow students through working a student job, and from that can confirm that there wasn't really a social element to classes that I was missing. It was usually just texts and emails to each other asking if somebody had solved a particular problem, and I'm rather glad that I flew under the radar of most of my fellows so that I wasn't pestered 24/7.
Now, a great lecturer is something else, but in my experience, most professors aren't great lecturers. I'd rather hack it out myself with the textbook and the lecture slides than listen to somebody just read off of the slides in a droning voice.
That said, the onset of the pandemic put me into a huge depression spiral from isolation. I lived in a city separated from family, could no longer see friends, could not go to work, had no one to come home to. I'm not a social guy, I don't need much, but having no reason to leave the apartment other than to get food did an immense number on my mental health. I think I could have gotten through it if I could have moved back to my parents 3 hours away sooner, but I was bound to the university because one of my classes required specialized software that the university was not willing to allow me to remotely access; I would have to go to a computer lab, and be the only one in there at a time, so not even the paltry relief of simply seeing another student.
Had to just cut my courses for the semester and leave. I was in a bad place. And was immediately better when I was back at my parents'. They were the only ones I saw every day, but even that was enough for me (okay, their doggo helped too).
So I sympathize if online learning is messing you up. I don't mind it in general, but it
combined with everything else about the pandemic, it's rough for everyone. Hope you can power through it, there's nothing else for it unfortunately.
Unfortunately remote learning isn't the most useful form for most students since learning is, largely, a social activity and sparring is a central element to learning, which is restricted when teaching remotely.
Hard disagree there, chief. Most of my higher learning that is worth a damn has been self-motivated and initiated.