Relationships Stay Intact Through Unusual Platforms During Pandemic
Couples have started using different platforms to stay in touch during quarantine. Platforms such as Facetime and Netflix party have become popular recently because they give you a chance
April 16, 2020
Many aspects of life are being impacted by social distancing rules, such as businesses, sports, and entertainment, but a lot of people’s lives are being changed in a much more personal and intimate way, when they are separated from the people they love.
Cari Brandt, a sophomore, has been quarantined since March 13th, and has not seen anyone outside of her family since then. As she continues to social distance to flatten the coronavirus curve, her relationship with her boyfriend has been affected because of the communication errors that can occur when conversations cannot be in person.
“[Quarantine] has made it really hard on my boyfriend and me especially because so much miscommunication happens when it’s not face to face,” said Brandt, “It has definitely made me a better communicator and we’ve learned how to work with each other even when we can’t actually be together.”
Apps such as Zoom, Facetime, Snapchat, and other forms of social media are being used by many to stay in touch with one another. Austin Zielenbach, junior, has relied on video chatting and texting her boyfriend to maintain their relationship.
Being quarantined has affected Zielenbach greatly, but being separated has been teaching her problem solving skills and how to cope with disagreements in a better way, because she believes it is more important to solve problems than continue them in a time when people really need each other.
“We’ve been arguing more than we usually do lately, what I’ve been trying to do is see my part in the argument quicker. Apologize, apologize, apologize. It makes life so much easier…it’s so easy to say sorry and get it over and done with. Who wants to be fighting right now?” said Zielenbach.
Jake Cruzen, junior, goes to a different school than his girlfriend, who is at Tesoro High School. Neither of them are usually allowed to hang out during the week, they typically can only see each other on the weekends. Since they are used to not seeing each other every day, quarantine is not easy on them but they were somewhat prepared for being separated.
“We are used to not seeing each other for periods of time, and though this is the longest it has ever been, maybe it’s a little easier on us compared to other relationships,” said Cruzen.
To keep in contact with his girlfriend, Cruzen has been using a more unusual platform, Minecraft.
“My relationship with my girlfriend has been affected tremendously. Because of that, we’ve been facetiming frequently, and even started our own minecraft server,” said Cruzen. Coronavirus came as a shock for most, including Cruzen regarding his new forms of communication. “Never in my life did I think I would end up playing Minecraft with my girlfriend for 5 hours every day.”
Despite the separation, many couples are dealing with the distance with different strategies to cope with these unusual times.
