Before March 15th, I followed people I knew vaguely (old classmates and coworkers, people I'd met while traveling) or people who are also active in the same "affinity groups" (couchsurfing, house sitting, queer activism). During lockdown it was reassuring to be able to continue to feel connected to acquaintances over Instagram. Long phone calls with close friends are great, but I missed the casual interactions and small talk and Instagram sort of fills that void for me.
While other people were cautiously forming pods and figuring out safe outdoors meetups, my offline life remained really limited. I'd arrived in a new city where I knew no one days before lockdown, so there aren't many opportunities for making friends. I'm a few years late to the game, but I've finally discovered the joy of following complete strangers on Instagram. My world has shrank considerably, since public transit and meeting new people is off the table, so it's nice to still have a window out onto the rest of the world.
Before March 15th, I followed people I knew vaguely (old classmates and coworkers, people I'd met while traveling) or people who are also active in the same "affinity groups" (couchsurfing, house sitting, queer activism). During lockdown it was reassuring to be able to continue to feel connected to acquaintances over Instagram. Long phone calls with close friends are great, but I missed the casual interactions and small talk and Instagram sort of fills that void for me.
While other people were cautiously forming pods and figuring out safe outdoors meetups, my offline life remained really limited. I'd arrived in a new city where I knew no one days before lockdown, so there aren't many opportunities for making friends. I'm a few years late to the game, but I've finally discovered the joy of following complete strangers on Instagram. My world has shrank considerably, since public transit and meeting new people is off the table, so it's nice to still have a window out onto the rest of the world.