Sue Frantz missed seeing her colleagues around the watercooler. 

Frantz, a Highline psychology professor, responded by creating watercooler sessions via Zoom and other platforms, inviting co-workers from all over campus to meet and chat. 

Amid the pandemic, with nearly everyone at Highline working from home, students, faculty and staff don’t get much chance to talk to their acquaintances at school. 

“In a recent watercooler session, one my colleagues said she not long ago read an article about the importance of weak social ties,” Frantz said. “That is how I came to learn about sociologist Mark Granovetter’s paper on the importance of weak ties.” 

In the article, Granovetter proposed that weak ties are important and worthy of research; to this day Google Scholar says that over 58,000 articles have cited this 1973 paper.

“For college students, you have lost out on a lot of the weak social ties you had by being on campus – the other students in your classes that chat with before and after class, the students in the Student Union who you sort of know because you tend to be in there at the same time,” Frantz said.

Some Highline students say they are feeling a lack of connection while being forced to study at home.

“I miss being able to connect,” Maddie Johnson said. “I would love to meet new people but I’m stuck at home taking online classes.”

Students also spoke about how they are recreating social interactions amid the pandemic.

“In order to connect I use direct messaging on Zoom and get in contact on the phone,” Simran Deo said.

“I’ve met a couple people through taking the same classes and I will Zoom or FaceTime with some of them to either talk about class or just hang out,” Johnson said. “I met my roommate though Instagram and we’ve been keeping in touch by texting and FaceTime.”

Students say they are still taking away some positive things from the pandemic. 

“I will definitely make in-person meetings a priority when it’s safe to do
so. I’m hoping to move to Western in the fall and so meeting people in my
dorm and classes will be a top priority,” Johnson said.

“The best part of being in person is getting the school experience and being able to do each lesson to its full potential,” Deo said.

For any students who may be wondering how to maintain their own weak social ties, Frantz had some suggestions. 

“I encourage any students who are missing these casual interactions to start their own (free!) Gather.Town spaces and invite everyone from their classes to drop in,” Frantz said. 

“Once the space is created, anyone with the link (and password, if you set one), to pop in. The person who created the space doesn’t need to be there. With the free space, you can have as many as 25 people in the space at one time.” Frantz said. 

“If this kind of virtual space is not your thing, then take a walk through your neighborhood,” she said. “Wave or say hi to the people you pass. Ask the people walking their dogs about their dog – the dog’s name, what breed is it. Comment on the weather. You don’t need to stop and talk, chatting as you walk past each other counts.”