Corona messes with friendships

Corona is a bitch, we know that by now, but corona is also the bitch that ruins your friendships or makes them stronger. You probably notice that you talk to one person a bit more this year than another.

Since the first quarantine, calling and facetiming have become a sort of second nature for me. By the way, did the corona crisis make short work of the phenomenon of importance? I can hardly imagine that you got through this year without append. I facetimed while stirring the soup, I called while walking in the woods, I even made myself appear on the screen of my video call (only with intimates, you know). I had to get used to seeing myself on that screen at first, but now my visual version and I are comfortable. What I do notice is that I speak to some of my friends much more often and some not at all. Is that bad?

Corona messes with friendships, as research from Snapchat shows. Logical, because you have to make a bit of a selection in who you see and who you don't. Which actually says nothing about the quality of a friendship. So I have had Esther since the first grade of high school. We see each other maybe three times a year, if it works out, but it is one of the most beautiful friendships I have. And this summer we suddenly saw each other twice in two months. Which is quite a score, if you take our annual average.

Still, 53 percent of respondents are worried about contact with friends. It should be more than it is now, seems to be the outcome. Not surprising when you consider that until March we were hitting up pubs and clubs together or hopping from dinner date to drinks. It's nice to know that friendship is always about quality and never about quantity. And if that is the case with you and a friendship, then it might be worth reconsidering.

In Glamour, I read a nice insight about friendship: “You can always try to keep people happy, but are you still happy yourself?” If this is the status of a friendship, then I think you might as well end it. Sometimes a friendship almost fades away due to all sorts of assumptions, like thinking that a friend suddenly finds us less likable. Which is usually not the case. So don’t just pull the plug, that can always be done in life after corona.

What is nice? More than a quarter of people are reaching out to those they haven't seen or spoken to in a while during this crisis. Look, that's a silver lining.

Source: Snapchat, Metro