Four Ways To Meet New People in Quarantine
For the nonessential workers of the world now spending unprecedented amounts of time sitting at home, maintaining a robust social life may prove difficult. While we do our best checking in on our closest family and friends, it’s no surprise we may have lost touch with the delicate art of talking to strangers. The world’s typical avenues for meeting new people — happy hours, parties, first dates — have been replaced by an endless parade of video chatting, live streams and dating app swiping. To help keep your conversational skills sharp, we found four virtual activities to ensure you can still make a good first impression once all of this is over.
Virtual Happy Hours
Virtual happy hours are a no-brainer for meeting new people at this time as they combine two activities that have already taken quarantine by storm: group video calls and drinking. A number of local bars and music venues, like The Hideout, are selling spots for Zoom-supported meetups, so you can support some Chicago institutions while you virtually make new friends.
2. Join a Discord Server
Originally designed as a community-building platform for gamers, Discord has expanded to include discussion groups for pretty much everything. From servers buzzing with the latest NBA news or Lady Gaga’s newest single, to sharing memes or even groups dedicated specifically to helping you meet new people, you can easily find a community to match your interests.
3. Socialize on Animal Crossing
If you’re one of the nearly 13.5 million people who have purchased Animal Crossing: New Horizons and are currently using it as a stand in for real life interaction, the game lets you visit random islands, making it one of the more unexpected ways to make new friends while on lockdown. If it’s good enough for Elijah Wood, it’s good enough for us.
4. Try a Lockdown Specific App
Being stuck at home means spending more time than ever staring at our phones, and a whole slate of apps have bubbled to the surface with the goal of helping people connect during this time. For example, DialUp, an app that randomly connects users and lets them talk on the phone, has introduced QuarantineChat, a lifeline for those looking for conversation with someone new during quarantine.