What's wrong with quarantine education?

There is a trend to provide services for free, which appeared during the coronavirus. Most of the free money was distributed in the field of education. It looks like a great altruistic and motivating idea. But as we self-developed for free, the feeling grew that there is some trick behind it all.

Trend researchers had to split into two groups and exchange arguments. One group defended the initiative: it is necessary to help each other in difficult moments, and home quarantine is the best time for distance learning. The second group argued the opposite.

Here are some arguments of the second group, because it is much easier to agree with the position of the first.

1.After the end of quarantine, it will be impossible to sell this course. The buyer does not pay for what he took for free. Of course, these are problems of business, and we can take advantage of its altruism. The thought "Here's a loser…" flashes through my head, but the suffering of the manufacturer rarely or never worries us.

2.Online education is a business. Business law: "There is no purpose — do not agree." So, if the course was not designed to make money, then for what?

3.The inscription "free" awakens in us the reflex to grab even unnecessary. So you can take a course that will never be useful in life. And let it cost nothing in itself; how much did your wasted time cost?

4.If the exchange rate used to cost money, but now it is given away for free, a natural question arises: was the exchange rate worth money when it was sold?

All this is empty reasoning, unworthy of experienced marketing fighters. We need to dig deeper, as we are used to. There we will find a reward system for the body, built on the laws of chemistry and physics, i.e., free from speculation.

It's all about dopamine

The harder and inaccessible the course will be for you, the more dopamine you will receive as a reward. Research by The Brain Prize 2017 winners proves that the hormone dopamine is not only a mediator of pleasure but also promotes learning and the process of memorization.

The more difficult the process to achieve, the more dopamine there will be, and the better you will remember the content of the course. But if you now get what was previously valuable without any effort, for free, then dopamine can work the other way around until the emergence of behavioral disorders.

The problem with any online course is that it is difficult to hold students' attention. The drama of free courses is that students don't even have the motivation to focus "because I paid for it." In addition to communicating with their pets, they inevitably check social networks, write messages and letters, watch off-topic videos, play and listen to music. Research from the University of London shows that media multitasking lowers IQ in the same way as sleepless nights and smoky jambs but without the associated pleasures.

Of course, all of the above does not apply to systemic free education in schools. Although, stop! Or does it apply?