PsyPost: Your adherence to COVID‐19 rules depends more on your social circle than your own opinion. “New research published in The British Journal of Psychology provides insight into some of the factors associated with compliance with COVID-19 regulations. The findings indicate that people are significantly more likely to follow such guidelines when their close friends and family members also do.”
CNN: Scam artists lurking on dating apps and social media made away with a record haul in 2020. “Scammers lurk on dating apps and social media, striking up conversation with strangers until they build up trust to eventually ask for money. The prevalence of these types of scams has been steadily rising for the past four years. In 2020, there was a 50% jump in reported dollar losses from romance scams from 2019. The pandemic has only made things easier, creating legitimate reasons for scammers to hide their real motives, claiming they cannot meet in person or need money for medical treatment.”
New York Times: How to Get More From Your Pandemic Bubble. “Social bubbles have helped us cope with the restrictions of Covid-19. For today’s Well Challenge, look to your pandemic pod to inspire and motivate you toward a healthier and happier life.”
Reuters: Cuddling in COVID: ‘Hug bubble’ lets seniors feel the magic of touch. “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, French care home resident Colette Dupas’s contact with her daughters has been limited to talking via video call, or through a window. Now the 97-year-old has been able to feel their touch, thanks to an inflatable tunnel and two plastic sleeves.”
BBC: Covid: Students and retirees form long-distance friendships. “Millie Jacoby met her new ‘French grandma’ for the first time last week via video call. The 21-year-old British student signed up to a scheme pairing language students with elderly French people, some of whom have been left isolated by the coronavirus pandemic.”
Click on Detroit: Michigan husband, wife die from COVID on the same day, 1 minute apart. “Leslie and Patricia McWaters spent nearly 50 years together before dying on the same day, one minute apart. ‘It’s beautiful, but it’s so tragic. Kind of like Romeo and Juliet,’ said Joanna Sisk. ‘One wouldn’t have wanted to be without the other.’ The couple was married for more than 47 years. Inseparable since the day they met.”
Washington Post: No game days. No bars. The pandemic is forcing some men to realize they need deeper friendships.. “For more than a decade, psychologists have written about the ‘friendship crisis’ facing many men. One 2006 analysis published in the American Sociological Review found that while Americans in general have fewer friends outside the family than they used to, young, White, educated men have lost more friends than other groups.”
Mashable: Tinder’s Ghosting Graveyard helps you craft a text to the person you ghosted . “Sometimes people come into our lives at the wrong times and we realise too late that they were actually pretty great. So, how do you rekindle an old flame without being a complete and utter pandemic cliché? Tricky. Tinder has rustled up a tool called Ghosting Graveyard that might provide some assistance in sliding into the DMs of someone you once ghosted.”
The Atlantic: The Pandemic Has Remade Friendship. “Four months ago, I went on a socially distanced, fully masked outdoor park date with my boyfriend (whom I have seen nearly every day since). I miss the ease of just seeing whomever I want, whenever I want—though I’ve also realized how infrequently I used to see my closest friends. The joy of a restaurant dinner has been overwhelmed by the logistics of safety, the concern of exposure. My friendships still form the center of my emotions, but not my physical life. Now they occupy the spatial margins.”
BuzzFeed News: Twitter Let Dozens Of Tweets Doxing Interfaith Couples In India Stay Up For Months. “For nearly two months, tweets by far-right Hindu nationalists in India doxing dozens of young interfaith couples — usually Muslim men marrying Hindu women — circulated on Twitter…. On [September 21], as outrage mounted in India, Twitter finally took down some of the largest threads, even though people had been reporting them for weeks.”
WRAL: Salisbury couple of 50 years died of COVID-19 holding hands, son says. “A North Carolina husband and wife of 48 years died holding hands after a battle with COVID-19. Their son, Shane Peoples, said his mom and dad, 67-year-old Johnny Lee Peoples and 65-year-old Cathy Darlene Peoples, died last week.”
Charlotte Observer: SC couple married 40 years died of COVID-19 on same day, leaving 14-year-old daughter. “David and Lora McManus of Pageland were married 40 years. Their deaths were announced on Tuesday by government officials in Union County, N.C., where Lora McManus, 59, worked in the Public Works customer service office for more than 20 years. David McManus, 64, was a pulp wood logger and trucker, according to his obituary.”
The Next Web: How to enjoy movies, games and more with friends online while social distancing. “…while it’s still not wise to go to movies, concerts, or game nights with friends, there are still ways you can enjoy movies, music, and games with them. Here are some of the ways to enjoy these activities with friends online while maintaining a safe distance.”
Arizona State University: Strategies for surviving and thriving as a ‘COVID-19 couple’. “For many of us, stay-at-home orders over the past several months have meant that we are sleeping, eating and working in the same place, potentially with the same people, all the time. Many couples may be facing a ‘make or break’ time for their romantic relationship — and as a result, they are searching for tools to manage increased stress, anxiety and uncertainty. That’s where Ashley K. Randall’s research comes in.”
New York Times: We’re All Socially Awkward Now. “As the school year begins amid a pandemic, many are concerned about the negative impact that virtual or socially distanced learning may have on children’s developing social skills. But what about grown-ups? It seems adults deprived of consistent and varied peer contact can get just as clumsy at social interactions as inexperienced kids.”
