Okay I think social isolation is starting to get to us all, of course. But some are dealing with it better than others. While I’ve been cooped up at home in the same pair of sweatpants since quarantine began,
some people are still going on that social initiative and making friends.
Steve, a Canadian studying in Aalborg, Denmark, noticed that while he was at his desk all day doing work, someone in an apartment across from his own was sharing a very similar lifestyle of desk work all day long.
“We sometimes make eye contact. Yesterday I had enough; time to make some friends, social distance style!”
He started the only way that makes any sense. Making big paper signs.
The message was simple.
“GUY AT DESK
WANT 2 BE FRIENDS”
Why use many word when few word do trick?
Eventually, he received a response, and a positive one at that!
Who knew making friends could be so easy?
We may never learn the name of Steve’s new friend, but it’s not the name that’s important, its about the journey and the friends you make along the… Just kidding.
The two new friends quickly began conversing in this strange fashion.
Strange times call for strange measures of communication!
Nice socks, eh? (And a jolly, beaver-tailed salute to you, my Canadian brother!)
These two fast friends didn’t let these strange circumstances change anything about their social skills. They asked all the questions you’d normally ask to learn about your conversational partner.
Well as luck would have it, these two were both students, although that is far from an uncommon profession in Aalborg:
“These are student apartments and Aalborg is a huge international university town; there’s a better chance the person you’re communicating with here understands English compared to Danish, as most Danes speak English, while fewer people speak Danish.” -u/Rustycougarmama on Reddit
And they both enjoyed the same activity that any young person would while stuck inside for most of their day! They’re gamers!
I wasn’t surprised to read they were both having fun with this. These signs, while they would definitely take some time and effort, would be a fun middleground between simply texting and a full on letter.
The messages can be quick, simple and sent instantly, but there’s still the fun of having to think about what you’re writing and actually putting it up on your window.
In case you’re confused about Steve’s friend asking him about what he records, Steve had an answer for those curious enough to ask!
“I do voice recordings (there’s a big marker for people with N.American accents here in Aalborg) with a fancy mic and was recently recording for some Hack The Crisis Hackathon pitches. He must have seen me and my friends haha” -u/Rustycougarmama on Reddit
Hack The Crisis is also a really cool event to check out! It’s happening the world over and certainly gives me hope knowing that there are some top minds actively thinking up solutions to our global dilemma!
“Hackathon is an idea-sprint event where people from different backgrounds come together, form teams and collaboratively build a unique solution to a problem from scratch. These solutions generally form into reality in the shape of services, websites, mobile apps, hardware devices and robots.” -Garage48
I had never heard of Techno-Anthropology, so I checked it out on Aalborg University’s website. It seems to revolve around studying technological trends and understanding how they can be used to predict emerging technologies! Pretty cool, and no wonder it’s a Master program.
Between Techno-Anthropology and Computer-Science, these two brainiacs will have some great ideas to bounce off of eachother no doubt, which shouldn’t be a problem.
According to Steve, they’re still talking all the time!
How wholesome is that? Leave it to these guys to keep some light shining in some gloomy times!
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