COVID-19 HOW TO BEAT THE SOCIAL RECESSION

At this stage of the social isolation game, you may have noticed an obvious divide emerging among your friends. As distancing and self-imposed quarantine wear on and workplaces begin staggering employees in-office days to cope with regulations, the COVID-19 outbreak has left many people feeling alone and detached in ways never thought possible. Some of us respond by hunkering down into cosy domesticity: baking banana bread, reading books or taking long baths alongside a trusty IPA. Others challenge themselves to return from seclusion with inflated muscles and a spray tan in a show of over-exercise meets ‘whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’.

And yet by this stage, more and more of us are beginning to fray: Zooming with friends (or colleagues that you previously wouldn’t have given any attention to) becomes a necessity rather than a luxury; the closure of a favourite coffee shop is cause for tears (and withdrawal tremors); and the walls are closing in Jumanji-style. Regardless of how