LIFE & ARTS

ISABELL VILLEGAS | MERCURY STAFF

Social distance makes the heart grow fonder

How virtual relationships have flourished during the pandemic

CALIS LIM

Mercury Staff

Due to social distancing measures and generally reduced in-person gatherings, traditional relationship interactions are no longer as feasible, making long-distance relationships more prevalent.

Regardless of whether a couple lives in the same city or on opposite sides of the world, nearly all communication is now virtual. Pavan Govu, a computer science senior, has been in a mostly virtual relationship for a little over a year.

“The way we contact has kind of evolved over the year,” Govu said. “At first, we really began mainly through Snapchat, and then we would occasionally text each other. As it stands now, almost exclusively FaceTime.”

One quirk of the pandemic, said psychology professor Regina Ybarra, is that unless a couple is living together, the relationship can feel long-distance.

“The biggest thing that keeps long-distance relationships going is being able to communicate,” Ybarra said. “The entire relationship exists in what we can communicate with one another because we don’t necessarily get to do stuff together, and you don’t get to experience the person in how they’re doing things.”

Karen Prager, a professor of relationships and intimacy, said that virtual communication now plays a large role in relationship maintenance.

“Now with Skype and Zoom and other kinds of communication, people can connect so much more vividly than we’ve ever been able to do before,” Prager said. “I know it’s been a whole year, which can be forever in a short relationship, but I would like to think that couples could keep something going through these platforms.”

According to a pre-pandemic study of more than a thousand participants in both long-distance and geographically close relationships, individuals in long-distance relationships were not at a disadvantage: rather, other individual and relationship features were better predictors of relationship quality.

However, there are still a host of other problems for couples to consider – including lack of physical touch.

“I would just argue for lots of Skyping, FaceTiming and all of that. Trying to stay in touch as much as you can, but you are bound to feel affection and sex-starved,” Prager said. “Deprivation is the name of the game under these conditions.”

Even though Govu and his girlfriend are within relatively short driving distance, Govu was only able to meet up with her for a couple days throughout the whole year. This lack of physical presence has been a challenge, Govu said.

“If she’s ever feeling sad or if she’s feeling pained about something, comforting her is just April 05, 2021 | The Mercury

‘Can You Find the Gun?:’ virtual art festival explores social justice

Thirteen different projects focus on impacts of pandemic, BLM

SMRITHI UPADHYAYULA

Mercury Staff

In response to a year marked by discussions on social and racial justice, ATEC is hosting a virtual Social Justice Art & Film Festival (SJAFF) for students to showcase work that engages with these topics.

The festival showcases 13 projects that include short films and documentaries, animated shorts, an interactive digital archive and a video game. The pieces engage with topics ranging from the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality to domestic violence and the impacts of the pandemic on different communities. The festival culminated in a panel event on March 31, but the works remain viewable on the SJAFF website.

Though the mediums and themes reflect the diversity of their creators, the works share one thing in common: a willingness to engage with complex and difficult topics. In an animated short entitled “The Pandemic Perspective,” an artistic rendering of COVID-19 comes to life, at first appearing playful but then morphing into something almost demon-like, conveying how personal experience and socioeconomic status impact one’s view of the virus. In the preschool-style video game “Can You Find the Gun,” the stories of people shot by police pop up when the user selects the item they were holding – a wallet, for example – when they were killed.

Kara Oropallo, a creative project management professor and one of the organizers of the SJAFF, said that the idea for the festival came about last summer, when ¬– in response to the Black Lives Matter movement – ATEC established a social justice initiative committee to examine how to better create space for students to be represented and to share their voices.

“I’m thrilled that our students are so passionate about the multitude of social justice issues and the intersection of these issues on our campus and within Texas,” Oropallo said. “They’re looking not only to provide a space

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RILEY CAREY, FIONA HABORAK, COLIN HANCOCK, CYNTHIA O’NEILL, DAVID N. WILSON | COURTESY