The way people communicate has new technological advancements developed. This evolution directly affects the way humans establish relationships and form connections.
When the pandemic began and classes were swiftly moved onto Zoom, Phoebe Handwork ’23 and Jack Lynch ’23 were able to form a connection through their online Spanish class.
“In our Spanish class we kept on getting put in the same breakout room,” Handwork said. “As class went on we ended up getting each others’ Snapchat and finally met [in person] about three months later.”
Before all of the chaos, David Langenburg ’19 and Isabel Backman ’19, both Grosse Pointe South alumni, met in school through mutual friends.
“We were both seniors in our English class,” Backman said. “At the beginning of the year we didn’t talk much, but after our mutual friends introduced us to one another, we started talking more often in and out of school.”
Grosse Pointe parents Andrew and Rebecca Pazuchowski were introduced to each other when Rebecca, a nurse, was taking care of Andrew’s father in the hospital.
“As I was taking care of his dad, Andrew would come in frequently to visit,” Rebecca Pazuchowski said. “At the time my co-worker was his cousin, and he got my number through her, then later asked me out.”
Over time, the use of technology has heavily influenced human interaction. Andrew Pazuchowski talked about the differences he’s noticed in relationships as time has gone on.
“In the beginning, you’re spending most of your time getting to know each other and your likes and dislikes,” Andrew Pazuchowski said. “But now I’ve even noticed that when kids these days are hanging out, they’re all just on their phones.”
With people these days spending the majority of their time on social media, many feel the need to post about their relationships. Ella Houting ‘22 and Luke Willson ‘23 have chosen to keep their relationship more private, without feeling the need to share everything with everyone.
“I don’t think posting about your significant other is important,” Houting said. “You can still really care about a person without posting it on social media to tell the world.”
Rebecca Pazuchowski also mentioned how relationships have become more public due to social media, which has created outside pressure when it comes to dating.
“After Facebook blew up long after Andrew and I got together, it seemed like your Facebook status determined your relationship,” Rebecca Pazuchowski said. “At work a lot of the nurses mentioned how they would go out with someone, and not even know what their relationship was until they changed their Facebook status.”
Although social media has its downsides, it provides an easy way of getting in touch, allowing people to form bonds over the phone. Langenburg and Backman were able to form a deeper connection online.
“Even though we had a lot of classes together, we never really got the chance to talk much in person,” Langenburg said. “We were able to talk about our classes and build a stronger bond online.”
Handwork and Lynch discussed how their relationship consists of both online and in person communication. While some situations call for one more than another, they still keep a balance between online versus in person communication.
“We see each other in person as much as we can, but also call each other almost every night,” Lynch said. “However, depending on the conversation we usually prefer talking to each other in person rather than risking miscommunication over the phone.”