Currently, I think we’re realizing more and more how wonderful it was to be able to get out of the house and chill literally anywhere but home. Even as an introvert, I’m losing my library and coffeehouse moments. Maybe these library and coffee trips are not as important (sorta kidding), but they’re also the bits of human interaction I need every once in a while to survive. Friendships now? Well, essentially they are non-existent.
But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) that’s the awesome thing about living in the digital era. Although sometimes blamed for being a destroyer of human connection from multiple generations, it’s all we’ve got at this point. Ironic really, but as someone who just recently started taking a class on social media, I’m learning more and more about how significant the internet has been in creating relationships all over the world. Or in our case, at least keeping the ones we have during hard times
And you know what? This might actually be the time to strengthen your friendships. My friends have told how they’ve been reconnecting with people they haven’t talked to in years because of their free time. Imagine that, something that’s locking us in and keeping our interactions less than ever before is becoming the reason why we’re reaching out. We’re finally taking the time to call that one buddy we forgot in the madness of it all. We’re learning one more new thing about the best friend we could have sworn we knew everything about. Heck, we might even be sharing a couple laughs as we remember that board games and family are a thing.
As humans, we take things for granted when they’re right in front of us day after day and suddenly when they’re gone, we realize how significant it truly was. It’s sorta like when we’re sick and can’t breathe so we try to distract ourselves by reminiscing about all of the better times we can think of.
Fortunately, social media is helping us in keeping our relationships alive, and although it might take a little time to get used to, we might come out of this even better. We’ll hang out once again with our friends and think back to those weird-ass times when lying in bed in our PJ’s during class was the normal thing (and boy am I going to miss that).
So to my fellow Gen Z people and Millenials, maybe our digital knowledge isn’t as bad as the past generations think. Afterall, it might be the reason why our friendships stay strong.