Hollie Rodriguez - Welcome to the sound of science on WNIJ. I'm Hollie, and today I’m joined by Dr. Suzanne Degges-White, chair and professor of counseling in higher education here at NIU. We’re going to talk today about friendship. One of the big things that was talked about in the pandemic was how we connect when we are isolated and now that we are kind of going back to semi-normal, how we connect now that we're out of it. How would you say the way we connect with people has changed because of the pandemic?
Suzanne Degges-White - You know what's really interesting, Hollie, is some of the research I've done recently in surveys and questions of folks after the pandemic is easing up has been a lot of people were finding out they got closer to friends who were further away, and their friendships with people who were nearby started getting a little lighter. It’s because we had that opportunity to connect really deeply through Zoom, through phone calls, and we really focused on getting to know people and really deeply connecting in meaningful ways because we were all anxiety struck by the pandemic. And so, some of those lighter casual friendships really were lighter and more casual. And so now as we’re getting back into our neighborhoods, out to work, some of the friendships we thought would remain close because of the friendships being close beforehand actually got a little more distant due to the way we communicate with people.
Hollie Rodriguez – Absolutely, it's so interesting to hear your other work on it as well, you talk about the concept of a “friendscape.” What is that? How can I have one?
Suzanne Degges-White - You already have one, Hollie. All of us have already developed friendscapes, we just don't realize it yet because when you think about it… you look at your yard if you live in an apartment there's a wonderful landscape you see. All of us have created in people in our lives with friends, with acquaintances, with quasi friends, and all sorts of people. Maybe people you work with, maybe people you're close to, but your friend-scape are all the people with whom you come into contact physically, emotionally, instrumentally through your life. So, you've got a friendscape, I've got a friendscape, and now you've been added to mine which is really awesome!
Hollie Rodriguez - This was the sound of science on WNIJ.
Susanne Degges-White - Where you learn something new every day.
