I’m Bored, Let’s Zoom: 11 things to do on Zoom with friends and family

In a time of literal crisis, with apocalypse-esque toilet paper consumption and international lockdown, one hero has emerged from the shadows to save us all. Bringing people together and keeping bored teenagers everywhere occupied, video chat platform Zoom is the MVP of quarantine season. 

Two weeks ago, I’d never heard of Zoom. But now, I can confidently say I’ve racked up well over an accumulative 48 hours of usage. Look, we’re all locked up in our houses, which means we can’t go on QuikTrip runs with our best friends or binge shows with our SOs. Sure, we aren’t doctors or grocery store employees, but for teenagers, it’s kind of a rough setup. 

We can all fret about the lack of facetime (no pun intended) with our people — and at the beginning of quarantine, I definitely did. But since the only way I can see my friends in person is six feet away on a three-hour walk, I had to get crafty about what I can do with Zoom to kill time and keep in touch with everyone. I know it’s not the same as snuggling on the couch, but we’re pretty much stuck with this for the time being, so here are my video chat boredom-buster suggestions to keep your calls interesting. 

1. Go through your morning or night routine.

I’m admittedly a fiend when it comes to morning and night routines. I really only wash my face when I get right out of the shower, and since there’s nowhere for me to go anymore, the most “getting ready” I can stand is putting on deodorant and brushing my teeth — I know we’re on quarantine, but hygiene is still important people. It’s important to do the little things even when there’s nowhere to go or no one who’ll see us.

A huge benefit of grabbing a friend to chat with while you get ready in the morning is the conversation waking you up, especially on weekday mornings when online learning forces us to get up well before 11 — a nightmare. And having someone to relax with at the end of the day can be comforting as well. We might not have nearly as much to catch up on, but as you wash your face, you can spill about the banana bread you made (see suggestion five) or the satisfaction you felt when you finally finished that 1,000-piece puzzle. In 10 minutes, you’re in and out of the bathroom feeling fresh with a friend.

2. Find a workout buddy.

I’m not gonna lie and say I’m the type of person who regularly goes to the gym, attends workout classes or goes on runs. I get most of my exercise through sports, but since the whole world shut down there’s not a lot of open and available options for people like me who never opted for spin classes and hot yoga.

But if there’s one thing I discovered during this quarantine, it’s that there’s a surplus amount of free online workout classes. You want to focus on abs? Chloe Ting and Alexis Ren’s ab routines on YouTube have you covered. You want that Kim K peach? Daisy Keech and MadFit are there for you. There’s online yoga, running plans, you name it. I’ll speak from personal experience when I say working out is kind of the worst, but having a partner or partners to support you makes it so much easier. Set up your laptop to do yoga with a friend, or go through an online 10-min arm-focused weights class with a whole bunch of people. Sometimes the daily walks get a little boring, so Zoom-ercise is a simple way to be active and social.

3. Throw a listening party.

Obviously the coronavirus has completely dominated conversation on pretty much every news channel and site, so one thing a lot of people haven’t been paying attention to is new music releases. I get it, movies are getting pushed back and concerts are being cancelled, but there’ve actually been a ton of albums released in the past month or two that are worth a full listen-through. Conan Gray’s “Kid Krow,” The Weeknd’s “After Hours,” Frank Ocean’s new singles, Phoebe Bridgers’ “Kyoto” — and those are just some of my current favorites.

You can play audio on a device during a Zoom call that whoever you’re chatting with can hear, so if one person puts their Spotify on shuffle, all callers can sit back, shut their eyes and imagine they’re in the car with all of their friends, listening to these songs the way we would if the world hadn’t been turned upside down.

4. Organize something.

The pile of clean clothes sitting in a hamper in your closet is a lot easier to get through when you’re distracting yourself. You’ve been sitting in your room for weeks now, and at this point there’s no excuse for the messy bed and trashcan overflowing with empty snack bags.

Set up your laptop on your desk — after pushing the clutter aside — and get to work. You and the lab partner you’ve been missing can clean out the cabinets in your bathrooms or go through your dresser to clear out all those clothes from middle school you’ve been holding on to. Productivity can be hard to muster, but it’s a good way to pass the time, so encourage a friend to give you a call while you clean. You’re getting something done, with someone. 

5. Cook a meal or bake.

I’d say this is personally the one thing I need to do more of. I find cooking incredibly relaxing. I’m big on formulas — probably why I loved algebra and chem, despite none of my friends understanding why. Hell, I’ve watched more of Bon Appétit’s YouTube than I have Netflix during quarantine. I think a large part of my love for it is how communal food feels. It brings us together — and it still can, even when we aren’t physically together.

Have a “Great British Bakeoff” challenge with your friends to see who can make the best chocolate chip cookies the fastest. Do something nice for your family and make dinner while chatting with a friend so the time goes by faster. There’s recipes online for all types of food — banana bread, protein shakes, lasagna, Pad Thai, the list goes on. AllRecipes.com is a great resource to find things to make. In just an hour, you can spill all the quarantine gossip and have a killer snack at the end. 

6. Have a lunch date.

If we were in school — real school, you know, in the actual building — every day at 11:55, the bell would ring for 2nd lunch, and I wouldn’t move. I ate in my Psych classroom with all of my friends at my table, accompanied by a slew of other IB kids and the handful of drifters who came in and out. Now, not only do I miss seeing my best friends, but I miss our little routines.

Calling up your lunch group to dine and dish as a break between doing classwork at home is a good way to bring some normalcy into your day, and allows for some casual socialization in the midst of being so alone. Everyone can set up their meal at home — ahem, the one you made yourself (!) — and open a Zoom call. With an ample amount of imagination, you can pretend you’re right back at East.

7. Dive deeper into relationships.

A friend of mine gave me a journal full of 3,000 questions to answer about yourself for Christmas last year, and I’d flipped through it and jotted things down, but it’s possible I was just waiting for a global pandemic to see just how clutch this thing is. When conversation comes to a standstill, taking turns asking questions to your friends keeps things rolling. With hundreds of articles online compiling questions of any category for any relationship, all you really need is Google’s random number generator and a willing participant.

Lately, I’ve been opting for the deeper questions for the Zoom calls with my boyfriend and the sillier questions with my friends during those late-night-into-early-morning chats. Even when you think you know someone completely, there’s always room to grow. I mean, aren’t you just dying to know what people think about extraterrestrial life or their deepest regrets? Needless to say, it’s a good way to keep things flowing when you’ve run out of things to say about the nothing you did all day.

8. Talk to extended family.

After a couple weeks, the idea of spending any more time with family seems like a chore instead of a choice. But for those who can’t see their extended families, whether it be because of health concerns or distance, Zoom is helpful for being able to chat with the people we love even if they aren’t in our homes. Check in on your grandparents — and maybe show them how to use the platform. Call the cousins you haven’t seen since the last family reunion, talk to your aunt and uncle living abroad. Even the older siblings who stayed in their college towns or who live outside of the house would love to hear from you. 

9. Vent about your anxiety.

We’re going through a global event completely unprecedented in our lives. There’s no to-do list or plan of action — we have to take everything day-by-day. For those who can’t function without the structure a school week provides or get uncomfortable not knowing what to do with themselves, quarantine can bring a hefty amount of anxiety. But if there’s a key thing to remember, it’s that we’re all going through the exact same thing. Calling a friend to get your worries and stressors off your shoulders isn’t just helpful to you as you process your emotions, but reminds others that they aren’t alone as well. We’re stuck in our houses, but we’re still connected, and you should connect with your loved ones too.

10. Cry

This goes along with “Vent about your anxiety” because in the times we’re confronting our fears and concerns, we’re often — or at least I am — reminded of everything we used to have. The hours spent at school surrounded by everyone we now realize we took for granted, the after school clubs that were more than just obligations for resume boosters, the Friday night dinners at our favorite restaurants with our families. Sometimes it feels like we’re all in mourning, and the thought of that can bring us all to tears. But while it’s healthy to feel these things at times, in the long run it’s counterproductive to wallow in it all.

Having a friend there with you on a call to either calm you down or get emotional with can help you feel less alone, especially when we’re isolated by ourselves. It’s a scary thing we’re all going through, and that uncertainty and disruption in our lives can cause strain on our mental health. If you miss your friends, your life or just need to let it out a bit, go through the emotions with a loved one so when you’ve gotten it all out, you’ve got someone right there to start cracking jokes with so you can rebound.

11. Self Care

Maybe you just cried, or maybe you just need a pick-me-up, so why not have a mini spa day with a friend? On both ends of the monitor you can mix those avocado and olive oil face masks and paint your nails any color under the sun. It’s the sleepover ritual, minus the actual sleeping over part.

If you’re finally going to dye your hair after seeing every person you follow on TikTok do it, why not call your best friend so they can see you do that crazy thing you’d only ever talked about doing? I’ve talked to people while tanning in my backyard, putting on makeup, straightening my hair, etc. Just like keeping good hygiene, it’s always good to do nice things for yourself — especially given we’re all stuck here by ourselves for the next month at a minimum.