Alright, I will admit it, I’m feeling it, personally and professionally. The third week of staying at home and I’m feeling the lack of human contact, outside of my immediate family, of course, with them there maybe too much social contact.

This post is turning it over to you, gentle reader. What tools and strategies have you managed to employ to stay socially connected? I’m asking for responses beyond the general Skype, Zoom, Facetime, Teams sorts of tools. There are bunch of them out there that are able to bring people together in all sorts of virtual environments.

Any of the following are not professional endorsements by any means and some come with privacy or sign-up policies. Please take them as they are, mere suggestions or threads to begin a search for the way of connecting with the outside world that works for you and your situation, safely.

I’ll go first. I have begun using Discord as a way to connect with friends. We are really loving how it is always “on” and can see who is online and available for a chat. I the current situation where people are often hanging about the house, this feature is handy. There is the option of voice only or audio/visual direct calls, group calls and you can always leave text messages for people to read later. The phone app is handy too, for those that are out of reach of a computer or with limited access. Much used by the online gamer community, there are a ton of established groups out there that are fairly easy to find, or you can keep your contacts strictly among people you know.

There are also apps available for free on phones, operating systems and on-line game services like Steam that offer a selection of simple, free games to be run, hosted and played over an internet connection. Ranging from two player games like backgammon and crib, to multiplayer games, such as Risk. Multiplayer games can be entered with people from around the world and most, if not all, have features that allow for text communication within the game or even voice and video. Again, such options need to be approached very cautiously due to privacy concerns.

Numerous methods for playing an hosting more complicated game and gaming systems are also out there. A growing number of virtual table top (VTT) apps are becoming available, many for reduced prices. The game that, to me, reinvented board games, Settlers of Catan, is playable for free on Steam. Many other VTTs are offered there as well. Again, not an endorsement for Steam, but it is one of the longest running on-line game providers out there.

Beyond board games are VTTs such as Fantasy Grounds, Roll20 and FoundryVTT, which have been developed to host and run role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons and Starfinder. Such games are more complicated and happen over multiple sessions, so it just may be the ticket to ensure a regular meeting between friends and establish that social contact.

Now, your turn. Please leave ideas or finds on how to remain social and sane during this period of isolation. It would also be great if people put forward any items of interest or questions they had about maintain some level of social contact. As with all of the resources that I’ve put out there, there are always more, but I do not want to overwhelm or present so many that readers have no idea as to where to start. The comments section would be a fantastic place to help me and others regarding this topic.