Hi everyone. My name is Amy. I am a second year student here at the University of Nottingham
studying History and Hispanic Studies.
In today's video I’m going to be talking to you about making friends online and that
despite all of the restrictions due to coronavirus you will be able to make some really really
great friendships.
Along with this I’m going to be talking about some of my own personal experiences.
How I started getting in contact with people before I started university when I was in
your situation about to start my first year and how I’ve made friends over lockdown,
either with people that I kind of knew before going into lockdown or just completely like
brand new people who I’ve kind of got some mutual friends with.
The social distancing measures currently in place across the UK will have an impact on
the way that students meet people in the first couple of weeks of university. Big gatherings
like lectures will be online and unfortunately clubs will remain closed. However there are
so so many different ways of meeting people and forming really really genuine connections
that don't have to involve walking to lectures with people and meeting people in clubs. There
are so many different alternatives.
Us as a generation who uses social media as second nature I think it will be a lot easier
than most of us would think. Definitely the first thing that I would recommend is to join
your Facebook groups for courses and accommodation. Becoming part of them early on allow you to
really get a feel for who's on your course and who you might be living nearby. Message
a couple of people in these group chats and honestly chances are they will appreciate
it so much and then when you actually come to meeting at university you've already got
this little network of people who you wouldn't have known had you not met them online. You've
almost like fast tracked this friendship because if you're messaging them already it cuts out
any of that awkward small talk that can be kind of daunting sometimes so by doing a lot
of this via social media it's actually making it a whole lot easier for you to interact
with each other.
And in terms of when you're actually at uni a really really great means to do this is
through societies and sports. Follow the societies you're interested in on social media, join
the Facebook groups and get chatting to people that are members. Get yourself into that in
the first couple of weeks. Having similar interests and hobbies is one of the best ways
to get to know people and become really great friends. So not only will you have people
that you live with but things like that are really what's going to open up your friendship
opportunities massively.
I wanted to share some of my experiences of meeting people online or just kind of getting
to know people better over lockdown using social media and hopefully this will reassure
you that genuine friendships can be made online. Over lockdown I’ve made a couple of brand
new friends through interacting on social media sites like Instagram with people that
I have never met. For example myself and Ella, you'll know her as a Digital Ambassador, I’ve
been messaging quite a bit and we've realised we've got quite a lot of stuff in common.
And I feel like those friendships are really great because you've based your friendship
off of things that you've got in common, so that when you do eventually meet in person
you'll have so much to talk about.
And then over lockdown I’ve become really really great friends with people who I sort
of knew at university. We were in different friendship groups and then being at home for
five to six months I’ve had so much free time so I’ve just been spending most of
my time on Facetime and Snapchat and just messaging these people and getting really
close to them. And then it's been so lovely because we met up in person over lockdown
like I’ve gone out for drinks, went out for dinner and that sort of thing. It's almost
like an unlikely friendship! Who would have thought that over lockdown when, you know,
no one was seeing anyone like these friendships could blossom out of nowhere.
Although this isn't like the most ideal situation everyone is in the exact same boat, whether
you're starting university or you're finishing university. The University of Nottingham is
working its absolute hardest to ensure that you have the most amazing university experience
whilst keeping us all safe. All of these guidelines and restrictions will be reviewed as time
goes on and different rules and guidelines come out.
So this is where I’m going to end the video for today. If you want to find me I have a
YouTube channel and it's Amy Cohen. If you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it
a big thumbs up and subscribe to the University of Nottingham’s channel and keep your eyes
peeled for all of their new content coming out in time for Welcome Week to welcome you
at the University of Nottingham. Thanks for watching. Bye!