Archie Comics nearly perfectly predicted Zoom classes for students in 2021 more than 20 years ago. In a story in Betty #46 back in 1997 that took the Riverdale student into the near-future, where it was imagined that classes were done over the computer via webcam. To make matters eerier, the comic is set in 2021, the current real-life year where many students are forced to do Zoom classes thanks to the ongoing pandemic.
Many have turned to Zoom for work and school, as the video-conferencing app has become a valuable tool as people are forced to stay at home during the current global pandemic. Instead of going to a physical school, many students now do all of their classes via Zoom on their computer and webcam. The app allows large groups to share presentations and have discussions, just as they would in a school setting. However, long before Zoom became the norm for many, and before webcams even became popular, Archie Comics pretty much nailed how students would take classes 20+ years before the pandemic struck.
In Betty #46 by George Gladir, Stan Goldberg, and Mike Esposito, Betty Cooper and friends are taken to the year 2021, as the comic opens with her parents commenting on how students don't have to carry books or worry about weather since everything is done over the computer. As class begins, Betty focuses on her computer, but after taking a phone call from Veronica during a lesson, she nearly gets detention. Given that webcams really didn't become popular until the early 2000s, the comic makes a pretty impressive guess at what 2021 might look like.
Veronica even uses some tricks to deal with her own classes. She has an entire video screen that she uses featuring some of her fellow students (pretty much a custom Zoom background). And, when she doesn't want to attend classes, she places a dummy in her place to fool the cameras. Like some bold modern-day students, Veronica tries to pull a trick that makes it seem like she's in front of the camera when she's not. Betty and Veronica end up visiting Riverdale High (now a museum) with Archie and Jughead, where they wish they could back to the good ol' days of real classrooms.
The comic is on the level of The Simpsons when it comes to inadvertently predicting how the future would turn out. In this case, Archie Comics imagined a world where students took classes over webcam in the year 2021 - which is exactly what most students currently have to deal with. It's a fun coincidence that is remarkable all things considered.