Snap Inc. released its second Friendship study today, interviewing 30,000 people across sixteen countries, to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic and global issues have impacted friendship. Seventeen experts on friendship from around the world contributed to the report too.
Anubhav Nayyar, Director of Market Development for SEA, at Snap said: "As friends around the world navigate the new normal of social distancing, this year's Friendship Report shows us that during the Covid-19 pandemic visual communication has become more important than ever.”
The impact of Covid-19 in Malaysia
The pandemic lockdown affected the friendship bonds between Malaysians as well. A majority of Malaysian friends said they are using online channels to communicate more than they would have before Covid-19 (81%) and the conversations have been deeper (59%), rather than focusing on surface-level topics.
It appears that digital communications are key to staying in touch with a vast majority (85%) saying it has helped in maintaining their relationship regardless of age.
However, there are some who felt loneliness during the pandemic. 31% reported feeling lonely since the pandemic started, which is 10% higher than pre-Covid-19.
In total, a third of people surveyed reported the pandemic had affected their friendships (35%) with 54% saying they felt distant from friends. Nearly half of those surveyed agreed with the statement that they “felt more distant from friends because they couldn’t spend time in-person” (46%).
According to Dr. Nur Hafeeza Ahmad Pazil, Senior Lecturer of Anthropology and Sociology, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
“People perceive friendships as important relationships and idealise a close friend as a person whom they trust, love unconditionally, feel comfortable with, and show their real self to. Self-disclosure is a part of the process of building the qualities of intimacy in which disclosing self and intimacy are associated with high levels of trust, and people usually relate intimacy by keeping ‘others’ at a distance.”
The good news is the survey showed that people genuinely want to reach out and check in on those they care about. Over a third of people (39%) say their friendships are more important to them now and over half of us are making an intentional choice to reach out to friends that they haven’t spoken to in a while (54%).
How are Malaysians coping?
Snap’s Friendship Report last year also found that childhood friendships have a huge impact on happiness and wellbeing. It was surprising to find that this year 29% of Malaysian respondents have lost touch with a close friend but it’s heartening to find that 59% would like to rekindle their relationship.
Malaysians are most likely to reach out by sending a photo of a shared memory (52%), followed by a photo that reminded them of their friend (49%). Malaysians also love humour and will start a conversation by sending a funny meme of GIF (44%).
Over a third (37%) would like to use tools to help communicate, especially in tough situations like getting back in touch.
Snapchat’s new Friendship Time Capsule
To help people around the world to reconnect with their friends, Snap has launched the Friendship Time Capsule. It’s a collaborative photo collage allowing Snapchatters to create a new shared memory between themselves and a friend.
The snappable invites users to take a selfie and then send it to a friend who does the same. It then uses Snap’s machine learning to put the friends together and age them up through a series of scenarios in the future.
This tool aims to help Snapchatters show they care for friends when they can’t be together and to serve as a tool to get back in touch with a close friend.
Malaysian singer-songwriter Ismail Izzani used the feature to reach out to an old friend, Asraf Zainuddin.
“Asraf and I met when I was first starting out with my singing career three years ago. He hired me to perform at an event and our working relationship eventually turned into friendship. We’ve remained close ever since.”
“Asraf and I are currently at different life stages as he recently got married and I’m focusing on my career. However, keeping in touch means a lot to us and finding new ways to do that has been part of the fun, especially in a time of Covid-19.”
Anubhav Nayyar said:
“Talking in pictures and videos layered with creative tools like our augmented reality Lenses, Filters, and personal avatars Bitmoji, help Snapchatters express themselves and interact visually. They serve as an essential connector when meeting face to face is not an option and at this difficult time have enabled Snapchatters to feel closer to their best friends even as non-Snapchatters feel more distant.”
“We hope that new features like our Friendship Time Capsule will continue to help Snapchatters stay close with their best friends and support one another,” he added.
