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With our on-campus semester cut short, many Elizabethtown College students are asking themselves the same, new question: How do I stay social, and stay in touch with all of my friends from school? Sure, most students can utilize text messaging as an easy means of staying connected but messaging a friend back-and-forth doesn’t provide one with the same quality of interaction they might get from face-to-face contact. Thankfully, there are a host of web-platforms and services built with this problem in mind! Programs like Discord, Zoom and Netflix Party are all great ways to connect with friends and to participate in fun activities at the same time.
Most Etown students already know of Zoom, the application schools are using to continue coursework during lockdown. Many students don’t realize that while Zoom functions well as an academic tool, it also works great for hosting virtual hangouts between friends. Zoom’s ‘screensharing’ feature allows its users to watch videos together or connect to play online versions of board games, like Settlers of Catan. Setting up a Zoom account and sending your friends an invite is easy and only takes a few minutes.
The digital platform Discord offers great ways for staying connected to friends. Previously, Discord has largely been utilized by those playing video games remotely with friends; the platform allows groups of friends to maintain voice calls while using other applications, which is great for groups playing video games together. However, with the start of social distancing, Discord is being increasingly used by the general public, as well. With Discord, you can talk to your friends while you type up an essay or plan your post-quarantine adventures. Junior Cole Young has used Discord for years to stay in-touch with long-distance friends from high school. “The fact that you can set up your own community on Discord for your friends or people with similar interests is really great for staying connected,” Young said. “It helps me keep in touch with friends I probably would have otherwise lost touch with.” Friends can also play the popular party game ‘Jackbox’ with the help of Discord, by connecting on audio and having one person screenshare on Discord from their personal account.
Netflix Party is another great resource for staying in touch during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike Zoom and Discord, Netflix Party was created recently in direct response to the pandemic. Once all parties download the free Netflix Party extension for Google Chrome, the program allows groups to watch shows on their personal Netflix accounts and sync their playback. That way, groups can watch TV shows and movies at the same time, while communicating in a virtual chatroom on the side of the screen.
Contrary to popular opinion, social distancing can provide a great means of making new friends too. ‘Slowly’ is an app available for iOS and Android that received Google Play’s 2019 Breakthrough award for its unique quality and innovative concept. Slowly allows users to connect with people from all over the world whom they share similar interests with by sending virtual postcards.
The coronavirus quarantine has caused unique and unexpected problems for us all. But, do not be distraught! As evidenced above, there are plenty of ways to maintain social engagement until we all come back to campus in the fall
