Earlier this year, The Atlantic wrote about what we’ve all felt but haven’t articulated. That all but our closest friendships have suffered greatly during the pandemic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/01/pandemic-goodbye-casual-friends/617839/
… much of the energy directed toward the problems of pandemic social life has been spent on keeping people tied to their families and closest friends. These other relationships have withered largely unremarked on after the places that hosted them closed. The pandemic has evaporated entire categories of friendship, and by doing so, depleted the joys that make up a human life—and buoy human health.
More on the withering:
There are people on the outer periphery of my life for whom the concept of “keeping up” makes little sense, but there are also lots of friends and acquaintances—people I could theoretically hang out with outdoors or see on videochat, but with whom those tools just don’t feel right. In my life, this perception seems to be largely mutual—I am not turning down invites from these folks for Zoom catch-ups and walks in the park. Instead, our affection for each other is in a period of suspended animation, alongside indoor dining and international travel.
Personally a significant percentage of friends are those with whom for years I’ve been in daily touch with chat apps and the occasional phone call. Those haven’t suffered because they weren’t in person to begin with. But all of them are with people who I had spent some time regularly in person at some time in the past.
I do think new friendships are rather hard to form in these circumstances – although not impossible.