A screenshot of "Among Us." (Screenshot by Charles Acquisto)

Discord, Zoom prove effective replacements for in-person interaction

Quarantine has made staying in contact with friends or relatives difficult, but with technology, not impossible.

Students have become more open to trying new things because for some, the average day-to-day texting quickly gets old. 

Senior Allie Bogetich used to dislike chess, but now she plays frequently with her friends.

“When I was on ‘Chess.com’ with my friends, it was so much fun,” she said.

For some students, Zoom is the optimum website, while others favor Discord. These two video conferencing platforms are fairly different.

Discord houses open chat rooms hosted on servers made by anyone. Discord also has a built-in chat box that is separated from the voice chat. On the other hand, Zoom requires the host of the meeting to start the video call, and the chat stays for only the period of time when the call is going on.

Senior Charles Acquisto uses Discord every day to stay in contact with his friends. 

“I use Discord around two to four hours a day. I join during lunch or when I am doing homework. Discord is super accessible and allows both work and fun to all occur in the same place,” Acquisto said

Zoom allows users to see each other, which is one of the features Bogetich likes.

“As cringy as Zoom sounds, I’m pretty into it. One of us shares our screen when we have Netflix or Youtube pulled up, and we just watch a movie for a while. I like Zoom so much because seeing all my friends’ faces is a lot closer to actually watching a movie with them in person,” Bogetich said.

Acquisto recommends “Among Us,” a party game similar to Mafia, set in space. 

“Very often, all of my friends are on Discord, so we play Among Us, which is both the loudest and quietest game I have ever played,” Acquisto said. “There are so many strategies to try out when being the imposter or a crewmate that it just never gets old. During the summer, it was probably a daily occurrence.”

Bogetich, Acquisto and sophomore CJ Dwumfuoh said they have spent more time with their friends virtually than before.

“I never really called or FaceTimed my friends before quarantine,” Dwumfouh said.

Without technology, the quarantine would be a lot worse, Dwumfuoh said. 

“I would have had no one to talk to for months, which would have been very lonely,” he said.

— By Dylan Margolis

Originally published in the Sept. 22 issue of the Octagon.

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