By Joniel Suezo
Due to the on-going lockdown restrictions and the risk of COVID-19, many of us have spent a lot more time alone this year. Whether you're working from home, living alone, or missing loved ones, feeling isolated can quickly have an impact on your emotional well-being. However, there are ways to create and strengthen bonds, even when you're physically separated from your friends, family, and colleagues.
If you want to cultivate a sense of solidarity and connect with people, take a look at these four ways to maintain a sense of community in isolation:
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A weekly, fortnightly, or monthly newsletter can be a great way to keep in touch with people during the lockdown. If you run a local community group, for example, people will be pleased to receive news about how you're keeping things going in the current situation. Furthermore, asking people to contribute stories, information, or images to the newsletter will enable you to keep working together with one another, even if it's from a distance.
Don't forget – newsletters can be distributed electronically via email or in paper format via the mail. While most groups now use email newsletters to keep participants updated, paper formats can be a great option for communities who don't have easy access to tech devices.
Radio has always been a great way to bring people together and forge communities. With new technology, it's even easier to connect with people via radio and live chat. With Spoon Radio, for example, you can listen to live streams and even chat with hosts. You may even decide to launch your own channel and create the content of your own!
No matter what your interests or hobbies, it's easy to find live streams to connect with. Whether you want to listen to discussion and debate or get involved yourself, radio gives you the opportunity to be as active as you like in your new community.
Radio has always helped a lot, you can listen to live streams and even chat with hosts. Pinterest
Social media is a fantastic tool when it comes to building and maintaining communities. There are currently 3.6 billion social media users around the world which highlights just how popular these platforms are. As well as using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with friends and family, you can also use social media to meet new people online and strengthen your social connections.
From trending topics and breaking news to entertaining videos and informative articles, social media contains a varied range of content and there really is something for everyone. Whether you're active on Pinterest, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube, social media makes it easy to connect with people – whether they're in the next room or on the other side of the world.
Blogging is a popular way to share original content online, both for individual users, non-profit organizations, community groups, and businesses. You're free to choose any topic, subject, or theme you like, so you've got the chance to create and share information or opinions that really matter to you.
As most blogs allow you to enable comments, a single blog post can quickly kickstart a discussion. As a result, you'll find that community engagement can pick up rapidly as your content encourages people to get involved and stay active.
With so many people experiencing loneliness and isolation in 2020 it's vital to prioritize communities in any way we can. Fortunately, technology gives us an ever-increasing range of tools to help maintain our communities and strengthen ties with one another. By making good use of these, we can minimize isolation and cultivate stronger communities now and in the future.
(Disclaimer: The article is sponsored, and hence promotes some commercial links.)