Written By: Sara Hedglin
After you graduate high school, life moves quickly and you tend to typically feel like you have less time to socialize with friends. Especially when you are busy with college classes, working, or starting a family. Next thing you know, three years go by and you haven’t seen your best friends in months. You prioritized school or work so much, that the friends around you started to fade. It is important to keep those friendships around you constantly growing and it’s not too late.
As a young adult, starting your own life and building your own path, it can be challenging to keep friends around when your life is so busy. Yet, at the end of the day, when you spend time with those friends you love going out and grabbing coffee with, shopping with, or just casually hanging out, it always feels like a breath of fresh air with them.
So, what does socializing or in other words “social connectedness” even mean? Based off of the CDC, it is the numbers or types of relationships that surround you, meaningful and memorable social exchanges, feeling a sense of support or belonging from friends and family, sharing a close bond with others, feeling loved, cared for, appreciated, and valued, and having someone to turn to when you are going through a tough time.
An article called Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy, establishes the link between social relationships and health outcomes, specifically “identifying the explanations for this link, and discovering social variation at the population level.” In the article, they talk about studies that revealed individuals with the lowest level of involvement in socializing were more likely to die than those with greater involvement. Specifically, a study conducted by Lisa Berkman and Leonard Syme, showed the results of death among men and women with less social ties were more than twice as the risk for adults with more social ties. The study then shares the benefits of social relationships such as positive health behaviors and habits, social support and personal control, mental health, and physical health.
According to the CDC, socializing with friends and family can help prevent serious illnesses and outcomes such as heart disease, stroke, dementia, anxiety, and depression. It was also noted that socializing can help recover from stress, anxiety, and depression, promote healthy eating habits, encourage physical activity, improve sleep and well-being, reduce the risk of violent and suicidal behaviors, and prevent deaths from chronic diseases from occurring.
With COVID, it has also created a block between physical interaction and the virtual world. It may feel like you are social as you text others, scroll through social media, and interact with others online, but these benefits do not occur without the physical interaction of others. An article that focuses on the Health Benefits of Social Interaction states that”we still need physical in-person connections for our own mental health.”
As a full-time college student in my senior year and working 15 hours a week, it can be very challenging to find times to socialize with my friends. Every minute of the day that goes by feels like less and less time to work on my schoolwork. It feels like I am always trying to be ahead of the next assignment and find myself constantly overwhelming myself. I have seen my friends beg me to take a one-hour break just to grab food with them and give myself a mental break, and as soon as I do I am back to being calm and refreshed.
So, how can you balance everything going on in your life and still find ways to make room for socializing? One way that can help make room for friends is to plan ahead. I find it works best for me as I try to balance time for school, work, clubs, family, and friends to find a time when we are all free and save the date. Whether that is two days away, two weeks away, or two months away. Reach out to your friends, connect your calendars, and find a day that works best for you. Another way is to incorporate both work and socializing together. If you and a friend both have a huge workload, make a library date or a coffee date. Do that work together and socialize at the same time! Or find a hobby you and a friend both enjoy or create goals together such as working out every Monday together. Not only does this create bonding time that improves your health, but you both are keeping your bodies healthy.
Although it may feel tough at times to make room to socialize, focus on how important that relationship is in your life, and how it makes you feel when you spend time with them. There is always room for love and comfort in your life, even if it feels like there’s no time.