There is no doubt that COVID-19 has taken a huge toll on everyone’s lives in various ways. One of the biggest changes people go through is connected to their social lives. We went from waiting for food in huge lines at our school cafeteria; running around in hallways; hugging our friends every morning; trying to find a place to sit in a crowded school bus; throwing birthday parties, and organizing Christmas events, to being stuck at home, attending online classes, and having to wear masks when going outside. The lockdown has turned our entire lives around.
The pandemic anxiety and panic seemed to decrease in summer. People went on vacations and spent their holidays decently, which ended up being a wrong move since it caused the Covid cases to increase. At the beginning of this school year, quite many people expected online classes to last for a couple of months, but… that never happened.
Now that mostly everything is under lockdown and New Year is right around the corner, I wanted to conduct a little survey to check up on some of my sophomore classmates and see how they have managed to keep up with their social lives; stayed connected with their friends, and what difficulties they faced relationship-wise.
“I mostly keep connected with my friends via social media and barely go out with them in a park for a walk while wearing our face masks; keeping our distance and avoiding crowded spaces. COVID-19 has negatively affected my social life, but I got much closer with some of my friends, which I think is one of the positive things that happened after the pandemic emerged”, says Lizi Ebralidze.
Elene Ramishvili had quite a similar response to Lizi’s. She says, “I use social media to contact my friends, relatives, etc, I mostly do not go out because of a pandemic, but there are some exceptions when I meet up with my friends while keeping a safe distance and always wearing a mask”.
“During the pandemic, my major source of communication with my friends has been social media. Before the virus was extremely spread, I used to meet up with only about two friends at a time with masks, and we would mainly go for walks and chat. However, I can’t see them in person anymore. We do constantly keep in touch using FaceTime, Zoom, and other apps. Sometimes we even do homework together while talking, which is a great experience since it brightens up our days a bit more and gives us something fun to look forward to. I would not say Covid has affected my relationships. Quite the contrary actually, as I talk to some people way more often than I used to”, adds Nanuka Sturua.
Barbare Tetvadze also shared her experience, “Most of the time, I text my friends via different platforms, such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Rarely, though, I do meet up with them. We try to follow all the regulations. COVID-19 has harmed my social life since before the pandemic I used to interact with a lot more people and had way more fun”.
“The pandemic has distanced me from most of my classmates, but I still manage to stay connected with my close friends on social media. I’m very careful regarding the pandemic and its containment, so I choose to stay at home most of the time and take a few long walks now and then while considering every safety measure I can”, says Ann Kldiashvili.
Our last responder prefers to remain anonymous, “Well, considering the circumstances, I am usually at home spending time with my family, but I always socialize with my friends through messaging, Zoom, etc. I don’t have a problem with staying at home if someone’s health depends on it. People have to realize that we should act upon this difficult situation, and rethink our decisions. Of course, If we go out, we should have our masks on to stay safe”.
Turns out the actions our responders are taking are adequate! According to an article by the University of Maryland, the best way to keep up our social lives is to make video calls; send text messages or letters; get involved in online classes. They also recommend meeting up with some friends and spending some one-on-one time with them while maintaining a distance of six feet and wearing a mask. An article from Harvard also recommends going out and taking walks while getting some physical exercise. Let’s hope everyone obeys the regulations and tries to practice social distancing. Dealing with such a major pandemic while still at school is quite hard, but by acknowledging the current situation and taking responsibility, we will go back to our old lives in no time!
Edited by Mariam BegiashvilI
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