Bonding Under a Pandemic: Forming and Maintaining Friendships Through Mostly Online Interaction in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

University life under COVID-19 forced students not only to take classes remotely but also to meet and interact with peers online. Through semi-structured interviews with 17 graduate/professional students at a large midwestern U.S. university, this study investigates how students navigated and maintained new friendships under interactions that occurred primarily online. The findings reveal a seven-level online friendship formation process that extends a model introduced in Levinger and Snoek’s pair relatedness theory. Remote learning mode inhibited friendship formation across the board, but especially in two of the seven levels. Friendships took more effort and time to form, leading to some mental distress. Nevertheless, students also demonstrated workarounds, finding ways to accomplish all levels of the friendship formation process even in the absence of frequent in-person interaction. The findings contribute to 1) friendship formation theories, 2) an understanding of online-first friendship, and 3) the impact of remote learning on university student social life.