If there’s anything that this pandemic has taught us, it is that we humans are social creatures. There are studies out there where they actually put sensors on the brain and put people into social isolation to test people’s craving for a social connection. These studies have found that lack of social interaction can cause the same part of our brain to lights up that lights up when we are hungry or addicted to something. This is because we are evolutionarily designed for that social connection.

This now creates two problems with this crisis we’re in right now. Number one is that we can’t create comfort in connecting with other people. Usually when we’re in a crisis, what’s the first thing we do? We go to our friends to talk about it. We go to our parents and try to connect with them. But right now that’s not even possible. And the second challenge with all of this is that everyone around us is the problem. The best thing that we can do right now is to just stay at home and do nothing. And that is just exacerbating our anxiety.

Hence, this post is about four kind of unusual ways that you can use to connect and socialize with people during this pandemic.

We as humans have a number of different core desires. And if these core desires are met, we suddenly start finding ourselves happier and feeling more fulfilled in our life.

The first is the core desire to learn and experience new things. Second core desire is to play and have a lot of fun. The third core desire is to have just little, small, casual conversations. And then the fourth core desire is to have a purpose in life.

So the first way to socialize with other people during this crazy pandemic we find ourselves in is to take online courses that have a community. I myself am an online course instructor, and you can check out my digital marketing course on increasing your website’s traffic on the following link.

Through this course, I was able to build an amazing community where people ask questions and support one another. But I also take courses myself. I make a lot of investments in myself throughout an entire year to take as many courses as I can that are aligned with my goals. And one thing I’m always looking for in any course that I join is to make sure there is a core community of people who are going through the same thing that I’m going through, so that I can connect with them. The kind of courses I normally enroll into are business courses or writing courses or video courses, just to get better at my skills.

The point is that taking online courses is a great way to socialize with other people, while at the same time meeting that core desire of learning.

The second way to connect and socialize with other people during this pandemic is through just unplanned, casual conversation. Now you might not think that small talk is an important part of everyday life. But it actually is an enormous part of our happiness. In fact, a number of happiness studies have shown that just even the act of having small conversations with strangers throughout the day can boost our happiness by a substantial amount. And this is unfortunately something we’ve really lost with this pandemic.

So rather than focusing all of your energy on very specific, planned conversations you’re having with people, if you’re maybe like cooking dinner and you just don’t have anything to do, just call an old friend and just have a casual, small-talk conversation. Or if you’re like doing the laundry, then call another friend and just have small conversations throughout the day. It doesn’t have to be this super big planned-out thing.

The important thing is that it is a human desire to have these casual conversations. Not every conversation has to have a specific purpose. So it’s cool to just talk about nothing. Like you can literally sometimes not even be saying anything. You can literally sometimes just let space exist in the conversation and just know that you’re both on the other side of the line. This is going to help meet that need of casual conversations.

The third way to socialize during this pandemic is to meet that core desire of wanting to play and have fun, and do it by playing interactive games. I have to say here that this has personally been like the most fun part of this pandemic for me personally. I’ve been connecting with a ton of old friends from college whom I haven’t talked to in like 10 years. And it’s been awesome! You can even play games during fun video calls with old and precious friends from the past, and just have fun!

The fourth way to socialize during this pandemic is to host big meetings that actually have a purpose. Now if you’re right now furloughed due to work or you’re unemployed, they you’re probably searching for some type of purpose in life. And it can be really tricky once we don’t have a profession to kind of keep us going. So now is the time actually to dive deep into those things you’ve wanted to do.

Maybe it’s some kind of volunteer work; maybe you’ve always wanted to get involved in a political campaign; or maybe you’ve always just wanted to help global warming in some way, shape, or form. What you can do is start organizing online events or getting involved in online events where people are actively working together to solve a problem.

This is going to help you meet that core need of having a purpose. Without a purpose, it’s going to be really hard to feel good about your life right now.

Hope these tips help you spend better and more fulfilled time during the quarantined phase of our lives.