Staying Connected In The Pandemic
By: K. Trisha Wibawa
Edited by: Fiorina Siamir
Zoom, Discord, Houseparty, Google Meet, WhatsApp—I’m sure you’ve heard of all these apps or have most likely used any of these apps during the pandemic. Forced to find alternate ways to communicate during the pandemic, being deprived of all human contact during quarantine, these apps helped us stay connected with each other. When the world locked down and kept us all at home in isolation, talking to friends and family online was the only way to stay in touch, our contact was limited to phone and laptop screens.
Being in Year 8 when the pandemic hit and having to stay at home just when my social life started to blossom felt like the biggest slap in the face from the universe. Coming down from the high of the best time of my life in 2019 and having to settle down and isolate myself from everyone was tough, especially as a freshly turned fourteen-year-old. High school is said to be the best time of your life. What I thought would be the best years of my life were wasted online.
Spending the first two years of high school online, with friends moving to other schools and even abroad, keeping in touch was crucial. From differences in time zones to different schedules and availability, my friends and I still managed to find time for each other and made an effort to commit to weekly calls. Though calls did not always follow through, it was nice talking to friends over text, and it was nice knowing there was an effort to keep in touch. Being someone terrible at replying to people and someone who hated calling, it was a struggle for me to stay in touch with people at times, which made it difficult for me to keep certain friends close.
As COVID cases started to go down in Jakarta, I was able to meet friends I hadn’t seen in years. It felt as if nothing changed in those two long years, picking up right where we left off. I believe that keeping in touch online was part of the reason for it feeling like everything is the same as it was.
In terms of family, I was lucky enough to be able to see my cousins and grandparents every weekend. The pandemic allowed us to spend more time with each other, my cousin's house being the only place I was able to go during early quarantine. However, one of my cousins' lives overseas, and we weren’t able to see him in those two years. I am lucky enough to see him during summer break, and it is nice to be reunited as a big family again.
Overall, staying connected when the world was in a bad place was very important for us humans. Social interaction is essential for our mental health, and finding ways to stay connected is the best we can do during these unprecedented times.