The COVID-19 pandemic not only brought unprecedented challenges but also sparked a “great reconnection,” where individuals reached out to long-dormant connections using technology. A study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships explored the diverse motivations behind these reconnections and their socioemotional benefits. The findings indicate that people who rekindled old relationships reported lower levels of depression and loneliness, particularly when they engaged in both deep and broad self-disclosure.
The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were characterized by strict stay-at-home orders, leading to significant social isolation. The authors of the new study were interested in how this unique situation affected relational and communicative practices. They sought to understand why people decided to reconnect with past acquaintances and how these reconnections impacted their mental well-being.
“Stuck at home in the early days of the pandemic, our research team wanted to understand some of the social phenomena we were experiencing as a result of the stay-at-home orders at the time,” said study author Nicholas Brody, a professor of communication at the University of Puget Sound.
“As scholars of communication and technology, we were particularly interested in how and why people were reaching out to reconnect with old friends and loved ones with whom they had not reconnected in quite some time. Other researchers had studied this process of relational reconnection, and we thought it would be interesting to extend their research to see if there were mental health-related benefits to reaching out to old friends in a moment in which people were struggling due to disconnection.
“As a team, we had been studying communication and technology in relationships for a decade, and suddenly faced with a moment in which people were more or less forced to use technology to stay connected, it was an opportune time to examine these sorts of questions. ”
For their study, the researchers recruited 254 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online platform that allows for rapid data collection from a diverse sample. The participants averaged 34.72 years of age, with a nearly even split between males and females. They were asked whether they had reconnected with someone from their past using communication technologies such as social media, text messaging, video calls, or email during the pandemic.
Participants who reported reconnecting with someone were asked to focus on the most significant reconnection they had experienced. They provided detailed narratives about their motivations for reaching out, the nature of their relationship with the reconnected person, and the communication methods they used. To measure the socioemotional outcomes of these reconnections, the researchers assessed the breadth (number of topics) and depth (intensity) of their conversations, as well as their levels of depression and loneliness.
The researchers identified several primary motivations for why individuals chose to reconnect with others during the pandemic. The most frequent motive was addressing relational dormancy, where participants sought to revive friendships or familial ties that had become inactive over time. Many participants expressed a desire to check in on old friends and catch up on their lives, reflecting a need to rebuild and maintain these relationships.
Another significant motivation was health-related concerns. Given the health risks associated with COVID-19, many participants reached out to ensure the well-being of friends and family members. This health check motive was driven by genuine concern for others’ safety and mental health during the pandemic.
Nostalgia also played a crucial role in motivating reconnections. Participants often reminisced about positive past experiences and found comfort in reconnecting with individuals who were part of these cherished memories. This nostalgic drive helped alleviate the isolation and stress associated with the pandemic.
Other motives included seeking support—whether emotional, financial, or professional—and making amends for past conflicts. Some participants sought advice or assistance from their reconnected contacts, while others aimed to resolve lingering issues and heal relational rifts. Additionally, a few participants reconnected to share significant life events or changes, such as births, marriages, or job changes.
The researchers found that the most commonly used platform for initiating reconnections was Facebook, including its messenger service. This platform’s extensive reach and user-friendly interface made it a popular choice for rekindling old relationships. Other frequently used channels included text messaging, phone calls, other social media platforms like Instagram, and video calls. The choice of communication channel often reflected the level of intimacy and the ease of initiating contact.
Importantly, Brody and his colleagues found significant socioemotional benefits associated with reconnecting during the pandemic. Participants who engaged in both deep and broad self-disclosure with their reconnected contacts reported lower levels of depression and loneliness. Depth of self-disclosure involved sharing intimate, personal information, while breadth covered a wide range of topics. These comprehensive and meaningful conversations contributed to better mental health outcomes.
Furthermore, the researchers found that participants who engaged in extensive self-disclosure were more likely to anticipate future interactions with their reconnected contacts. This positive outlook on maintaining the rekindled relationships suggests that these reconnections were not just temporary measures during the pandemic but had the potential for long-term relational benefits.
“We found that in the early days of the pandemic when individuals reached out to people from their past with whom they had not talked to in some time, they tended to report lower levels of depression and loneliness,” Brody told PsyPost. “This was true of engaging in both in-depth, intimate conversations and broad, topical conversations. Important to note is that, due to stay-at-home guidance, these conversations were almost exclusively carried out through technology such as social media, text messaging, video calls, and email.”
“Further, we investigated the motivations for reconnecting with people, and the primary reasons related to a desire to rekindle an important relationship from the past that had become dormant, to do a health check because of the pandemic, or for reasons of nostalgia.”
“Overall, these findings underscore the potential mental health benefits of communication technology usage, especially during stressful times. Further, most theories and research on self-disclosure focus on face to face conversations and investigate new friendships and relationships. This study demonstrated that the same processes largely hold when rekindling a lapsed relationship.”
However, the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. Reconnection during a global crisis might differ from reconnection in more typical times.
“Of course, these findings are somewhat limited because data was gathered during the early days of COVID-19, which was a once-in-a-generation type of event that required people to remain largely socially distant,” Brody said. “It was also cross-sectional. Future research should examine these processes in a longitudinal manner.”
The study, “The great reconnection: Examining motives for relational reconnection and investigating social penetration as a predictor of well-being,” was authored by Nicholas Brody, Kate Blackburn, and Leah LeFebvre.
