How to make friends as a student over zoom.
By Chloe Gudgin
Over the past 18 months the whole world changed from human contact to digital contact which, as a student, affected the way we could connect with other students. Everything changed; lecture theatres have moved to our laptops and phones giving us connection with others and through that we have had to create friendships in a different style than before. So before you move into your new student housing in Lancaster, see our top tips for making friends.
5 tips to make friends virtually
One of the ways to make friends over zoom is to simply connect with them on social media. Social Media can help create the balance of student life and your actual life as through that you don’t just have the connection of zoom lectures you have the different tones of connecting through different values.
Studying in virtual groups from the comfort of your student accommodation in Lancaster is a great way to meet people and get to know each other better in your own spare time. This will help you both socially and academically as it will help break up your day whilst connecting you with someone else.
Being engaged in breakout rooms is a way to simply relate to your peers. Breakout rooms are tough, they are awkward especially if you haven’t met your peers that you are spending your degree with but the way to slowly come out of your shell is to put your microphone on and just start talking. If you start talking, someone else will follow and before you know it you will feel like you are actually in the university library from the comfort of your lancaster university student accommodation.
Engaging in extracurricular activities through zoom has been hard and a lot of students have pulled out of them due to that reason but that simple task of entering a zoom meeting to do that extra activity will get you talking to others about your same interests and again, will start to build friendships.
Being able to meet up socially distanced. As the world opens up more we are allowed to meet up with those from different households, so being able to sit outside a coffee shop and chat to your peers on the same course as you really makes it feel more real.
Online University is tough, it’s weird and uncomfortable but that does not mean you can’t make the same friendships you could have beforehand. Friendships can be created through this time as you are both experiencing the same wave of zoom lectures and zoom fatigue as-well (a very common experience a lot of people are going through, especially students!!!!).
The one thing for us as Students to remember is that whether that be through lectures online or in-person, friendships can be made and the connection of human to human can still continue whether through zoom or outside a coffee shop.
