Virtual Connection Replacing IRL Connection

We all believed it would only last a few weeks, a month at the most. Then our universities began shutting down and we playfully said goodbye. “I’ll see you after spring break,” we told our friends after a quick hug, unaware that we wouldn’t see them for months on end. We thought we would return to our clothes-strewn, in-need-of-a-good-dusting dorm rooms soon enough. It couldn’t be a long-term situation. It couldn’t be that serious. We ignored the news. Next, we lost our travel plans, our graduations, and our jobs.

All because of it. Everything going on. Unforeseen circumstances.

We’ve heard the terms enough. The pandemic surged worldwide, affecting the economy, global health, and the way we interact. The TV blinked as I shut off the news and I exited Twitter as headlines about toilet paper raged. I turned to Instagram, my only reprieve for feel-good content. Bloggers and influencers began a positivity moment on Instagram stories by tagging each other, suggesting that they show off their most favorite photo of themselves. As a content creator myself, I have never spoken to so many like-minded individuals on Instagram than I did during the first few months of quarantine. Some I now even call friends. We still interact online and send letters back and forth due to cross country distance. It was surprising but endearing to make friends on Instagram even when real social interaction became almost obsolete. Human connection is always available if you know where to look.

@intellectual.liv — @**intellectual.li**v

My first few months of quarantine mind-numbingly went like this: sleep in, scroll on social media, Zoom, scroll on social media, Dalgona coffee, another class on Zoom, FaceTime my boyfriend, interview on Zoom, watch TikToks for four hours straight, attempt to create my own viral TikToks and ultimately fail, contemplate the meaning of life, Tiger King memes, and scroll on social media some more. Like many others belonging to Gen Z, I was already obsessed with social media before quarantine. I couldn’t imagine life without it. The addiction increased tenfold when restaurants, stores, and other social spots closed down and governors told states to stay indoors. Sure, I took up watercolor painting and played Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch once in a while. But my iPhone taunted me. “Interact with someone other than your family lol,” it said. Anyone over the age of 30 would make fun of me for this. “Read a book. Go take a walk,” they would say, rolling their mature, all-knowing eyes.

The thing is, I took their advice. I read books. I took walks. My imagination ran wild and I picked up my camera. I mastered every pasta dish under the sun, and yet social media seeped its way into every interaction I had. Even the title of this article contains textspeak.

There is no escaping the pull, or the convenience, of social media platforms. I was starving from lack of human connection—we all were—and social media was like a Thanksgiving feast. I even completed an internship for a small jewelry company online. I became so accustomed to meetings on Zoom or Google Hangouts that would otherwise be in a conference room. I can no longer imagine being bothered with wearing business casual over my “Zoom shirt”—combined with fuzzy pajama pants that no one will see anyway—to travel any distance for a meeting. The flexibility and freedom that comes with work from home leaves me hoping that it will be normalized, even after it has left us.

Is virtual connection helping us or hurting us? On one hand, social media and other virtual platforms have helped me connect with others in way that wouldn’t be possible before the pandemic. It has allowed me to create and share my work online, increasing availability to a larger audience. Do I want to be glued to my phone all hours of the day and barely notice life pass me by? No.

But social media has been the only safe way for us to interact during social distancing, making it a healthier alternative to IRL interactions. When it is gone, will we still be enamored with our screens, eventually leading to a technology-induced apocalypse? Not any more than our current state of government will. The likelihood of virtual connection being more embedded into our daily life is high, but nothing can wholly replace true human interaction. We will be jumping to hit restaurants, socialize at parties, and reunite with our friends in person as soon as deemed possible. A delicate balance must be struck, uniting the opportunities of virtual connection with the natural comfort of human interaction. Virtual connection isn’t hurting humanity by any means but advancing it. Still, you know the saying: “Too much of a good thing…”

By: Wilmarielle Cambrelen

Student of Public Relations, beauty blogger, and CEO of dreamy aesthetics.