"Only Connect!" If I were the kind of person who could commit to literary-inspired tattoos, this epigraph from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel Howard’s End might be my choice. As someone who spent a great deal of time pre-pandemic thinking and talking about the importance of real-life connection – The Oyster began as a sort of in-person social survival network for young adults looking for things to do in the off-season –the prolonged periods of quarantine we’ve all had to endure in the name of public safety has felt not just personally devastating but also professionally confusing. How can I encourage social and personal connection as a strategy for emotional well-being from six feet apart? How do we reconcile caring both for our community and our own mental health? And how many days in a row can I possibly work from home wearing pajama pants without officially becoming what one friend calls a “pajama pants person?”
These are the questions that keep me up at night. And since we’re (still, STILL) surviving a pandemic, I recently did what any self-respecting person with a smart phone would do, and I asked Instagram for advice. I wondered– in the form of several stories and some targeted emails and DMs –in the absence of our regular off-season survival tactics (potlucks, movie nights, raucous nights downtown) what are people doing to stay connected, engaged and reasonably happy, during this, the second full winter of our collective discontent?
