Being isolated is tough. It can be especially tough without your friends around. Keeping your sanity can be harder than ever in the times of quarantine, but being able to talk to your friends just might save it. 

Luckily, we live in an era where technology and staying connected with anyone is easier than ever. With communication devices in almost everyone’s pockets and even laptops given to us by the school, there are virtually endless ways to stay connected with your beloved friends. Apps like FaceTime, Snapchat, Skype, Zoom, and many more are all platforms that you can use to keep in touch with anyone that you can’t see during lockdown. 

Social distancing does not mean that you cannot be social. Schedules for many people, including my own, have changed a lot especially since COVID-19 has taken our ability to go out and socialize with others. The great thing that we have is the internet, and coronavirus has not found a way to be contagious through our devices. This means that we can all communicate with each other and have a good time in the comfort and safety of our own homes. 

Throughout these tough times, I’ve sometimes found myself basically dying of boredom, but found different activities to occupy myself with for the first week. When I started to run out of ideas, I felt burnt out and helpless. I searched for any solution possible to quench my boredom and struggled to keep myself awake since sleeping was more exciting than sitting in my bed all day and watching Netflix. Then one day, it hit me… my friends! I texted in an old group chat and started an online call. My friends joined and we talked for hours, hearing their voices and laughing with them had been the funnest thing I had done all week at the time. Once the call had ended, the memory stuck with me for the following week and every time i would think back to it I would smile, remembering the jokes and good times that happened that day.

Setting these calls up is very easy, if you want to have a group FaceTime, simply add the contacts of your friends into a group chat, then call the group chat on FaceTime. Another way, that you may or may not have known about, to connect with others is through a browser extension called Netflix Party. This allows you to replicate the feeling of being at a friends house and watching a movie, with the added bonus of a group chat to communicate on the side of watching a movie together. Although there are many other ways to keep in touch with your buddies online, the best way, in my opinion, is video chatting with people.The change of routine can be difficult but it is worth the effort to speak to someone with conversation rather than texting. This is because you don’t have to put much effort and tire yourself with reading and writing, but instead it’s as if you are actually speaking to them face to face and nothing can beat that.