In the new age of COVID-19, so many people have been robbed of their plans, even of the life they intended they would live throughout 2020 and beyond. These days, we are all unable to do simple things that I now know I once took for granted; meeting your girls at a bar and sharing a drink, sitting down, and grabbing a bite at your favorite restaurant, catching a Friday night movie with your girlfriends. Not only have certain areas of our lives been sacrificed, but some of our relationships have become harder to sustain due to these new physical restrictions.
Physical touch has also been stripped of our cultural normalcies. I understand how these new precautions cause unrest and unease within the mental space. As human beings, we are not meant to be disconnected from one another or without the ability to share intimacy and human connection.
In the last few months, I have noticed how so many friends of mine have taken to new apps, software, and websites to assist in the building and maintaining of their relationships during COVID. Some of my friends have started new group texts, facetime calls, and zoom sessions to implement community interaction into their weekly, sometimes even daily routines. I have taken to organizing a list of suggested software tools below.
Most of the suggestions will help you to forge community spaces for both you and your girls in order to sustain your sisterhood throughout this time of radical readjustment. All of the apps below are easy to maneuver, easy to use for all ages, and can be utilized for individual or group settings.
Conversational Apps:
- Slack
- Facebook Messenger
- DMs
Video Chatting Apps:
- Zoom
- FaceTime
- Skype
- Hopin
- Google Duo
- Google Hangouts
Collaboration Apps
- Asana
- Trello
- Slack
- Podio
- Flock
In orchestrating these calls and conversations, especially for those under the video chatting category, it’s best to implement a schedule into your routine that applies consistency. Consider choosing a date and time every week for you and your girls to hop on a call and check-in with one another.
With the conversational apps, be the one to initiate the group chat. Add all your girls onto the platform or app of your choosing, so it’s easy to connect with everybody simultaneously. WhatsApp is best if you’d like to connect to anyone internationally.
Don’t neglect to connect with your sisters! Sisterhood is crucial in these times of great uncertainty and readjustment. Being able to lean on your support system is tremendously important to sustaining your connections with those closest to you. It will help you pave the way for your new reality.