I’ve been feeling the weight of the crisis for the last two weeks. Being in an operations job means knowing that what’s about to hit is gonna throw everyone for a loop. Being the owner of a company with a lot of small business clients means knowing that not every company’s coming out the other side of this. I’m a little worried about my company not making it if this lasts for a while.

I’ve been making it, but just.

Today, I accidentally started a Zoom meeting happy hour for some old friends, and we all sat and talked while we worked from our houses. We haven’t all been in the same place since… 2002?

It was transformative. It was light. It was just good to care with some other folks who’ve seen the same stuff you’ve all seen.

Camaraderie amidst the challenges of the pandemic is going to be a hard thing to live without. But thanks to our friends at Slack, Zoom, WebEx, Skype, Teams, Hipchat and others, we don’t have to do it alone. Technology can bring us closer, it can bridge us together from all over the world. It doesn’t always. It can be used to divide us, to put a wedge in between us. But it can also bridge that divide, span that chasm, and lift us up in the midst of crisis.

Quarantine and social distancing are lonely things. Care for yourself. Care for others. Reach out and talk to people you haven’t seen in a while. We can use our technology to help push back that loneliness.