by Luka White
Fun ideas to keep you feeling connected
During this COVID-19 lockdown, the way we communicate with each other has changed.
Without being able to meet friends face-to-face it can be tempting to shut down communication altogether. However, communicating with others is one of the best ways to look after our own wellbeing.
It is a great time to learn how to socialise over an online communication platform such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Messenger, Instagram, Zoom or Skype. If you are at a loss for fun ways to socialise over these platforms, this blog post is for you! Here are my top five ideas to keep your video calls feeling fun and fresh.
Fun ideas to keep you feeling connected
During this COVID-19 lockdown, the way we communicate with each other has changed.
Without being able to meet friends face-to-face it can be tempting to shut down communication altogether. However, communicating with others is one of the best ways to look after our own wellbeing.
It is a great time to learn how to socialise over an online communication platform such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Messenger, Instagram, Zoom or Skype. If you are at a loss for fun ways to socialise over these platforms, this blog post is for you! Here are my top five ideas to keep your video calls feeling fun and fresh.
- Who can build the best blanket fort?
You and your pal each get one hour to build the best blanket fort you can in your own homes. Then on your video chat, you can give each other a virtual tour and decide who is the winner!
You also have now created a lovely space to eat popcorn and try out the new Netflix Party feature.
We want to encourage you to try and keep communicating with your friends, family or loved ones as much as is safe and your energy and mental health allow. We still do not know how long lockdown will last, and that can feel scary. But it might feel a little less scary if at least we can still feel connected.
Image credits: Introflirted #23 Blanket Fort by Josh Higgins
Image description: Illustration of a white blanket fort on a red background, the black text above the fort reads ‘we can ride out the storm in my blanket fort’
2) Draw Together
Feel like you could use some portrait drawing practice? Take it in turns to draw each other over a video call. You could practice different poses and facial expressions.
Need a bit of a laugh? Set a timer for 2 minutes. Then try and draw each other’s faces. Then try again, but with your left hand. Then try again, but with your eyes closed. Now do each three steps again but give yourselves 30 seconds. Share and laugh at each other’s results as you go.
3. Design your friend an escape room
An escape room is a real-life adventure game. One person is ‘locked’ in a room. To ‘escape’ they have to find clues and solve a sequence of puzzles. For example, hidden in a photo on the wall might be an instruction to look under the mat. When you look under the mat, you find a key.
Make your room into an escape room. Then video call your friend. Your friend has to guide you around the room and solve the puzzles for you, to help you escape the room alive! If you are feeling kind, you can always give them a clue.
Image credits: flyingmouse365
Image description: blue background on which is drawn a computer ‘escape’ button. The button is sawing through the bars of a prison cell window.
4) Plan an online pub quiz
You could do this yourselves, by taking it in turns to be ‘quiz master’ and choosing silly topics for your friends.
Or, you could join in with a local online pub quiz in Brighton. There are even some pub quizzes that have gone international – check out Gooses Quizzes, an Edinburgh based pub quiz team that do an online pub quiz every night of the week at 7pm.
5) Bust some moves
Have you always thought it’s time for you and your best mate to learn a synchronised dance routine to Wannabe by the Spice Girls? No? Well, maybe it’s time to start…
Oti Mabuse is doing free online 15-minute dance classes on YouTube. You and your friend could get on a video call, press play at the same time on the vid, take the class and then dance along together. Nothing like synchronised movements to make you feel closer.
Here’s the Spice Girls to get you started: https://youtu.be/QOJ8emheUh4
You can also find chair/wheelchair accessible tutorials online – such as this one: https://youtu.be/ujC-kNgPg08
Image credits: Josh Mckenna via vogue.co.uk
Image description: illustration of a masculine-presenting person of colour, dancing and wearing a white vest, blue trousers and red heels.
We want to encourage you to try and keep communicating with your friends, family or loved ones as much as is safe and your energy and mental health allow. We still do not know how long lockdown will last, and that can feel scary. But it might feel a little less scary if at least we can still feel connected.
The Clare Project is here for you. For 1-1 emotional support, you can call our helpline. Keep an eye out on our Facebook and Instagram pages for other ways to stay connected with us, and each other, during this time too.
Join our Facebook group by clicking here.
