By Aiden Richmond | LTVN Sports Director
For whatever reason, society seems to believe that socializing comes after everything else. Color-coded calendars are filled to the brim with classes, shifts, workouts and hopefully blocking out time to eat in our busy schedules, while finding time with friends is treated like a luxury.
However, this mindset is backward. That time isn’t a waste; it’s essential to the human body and mind. When schedules are packed back-to-back, exhaustion takes over. Even when spare time appears, it has become habitual to pull out your phone and scroll. Instead of talking to the other people around us, we take a quick shot of blue light dopamine and collapse into self-isolation.
Humans are social by nature. Conversation, laughter and shared experiences help regulate stress and improve mental health. When you take all that away, loneliness takes its place. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an 82-page document called “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.”
On page 14, they concluded that from 2003 to 2020, the average person saw an increase of 24 hours a month in social isolation, along with a 20-hour decrease in the time spent with friends a month. College students feel this pressure — or at least I do.
We constantly hear that when a moment is not spent cramming our heads into books and going out to try to grab any available internship, we are wasting time and money. Networking replaces friendships and rest is framed as laziness, but relationships aren’t formed from leftover time.
Meaningful relationships require consistency. Friendships are built through showing up with shared routines, conversations and experiences. When people only socialize after everything else is finished, those moments become rare. Leaving space in a schedule for others is a way of acknowledging that relationships matter now, not just when life becomes easier and less busy.
Scheduling social time doesn’t mean turning friendships into chores. It doesn’t require a rigid plan or constant activity. It can be as simple as blocking out time for dinner with friends once a week, calling someone during a walk or setting aside an evening to be present with others. Intention is the key. When social time is planned, it is protected from being pushed aside by last-minute obligations.
Our schedules reflect our priorities. If we want a Hebrews 10:24-25 community, we need to mark our calendars with time for our friends, like everything else we have on them. Otherwise, they’ll keep getting postponed — indefinitely.
So the next time you plan your week, don’t ask yourself, “What do I need to get done?” Ask, “Who do you want to see, talk to and laugh with?” Then make space for those interactions.
