My roommates and I had dinner together on a recent Tuesday night.
No laptops. No cellphones. Just the three of us, sharing our company and a meal we made together.
It had been a while since we sat down together and just talked. Summer plans, traveling, and general life busyness kept us hopping in and out of each other’s lives for the past few months. We’d hang out and have a great time, but it never resulted in the kind of deep interactions that foster meaningful connection among friends.
So we decided to put aside our busy schedules and catch up, distraction-free.
What resulted was the most free-flowing conversation we’ve had in months. We talked about what was new in our lives, our careers, our goals and our ambitions. We questioned each other’s inherent assumptions about everything from dating to the merits of going to grad school. There were few topics left untouched.
The conversation was refreshingly open and honest, leaving me fulfilled and energized. It was the kind of genuine interaction you hope you can have with your friends.
The crazy part is, this meaningful conversation was simply the result of deciding to prioritize face-to-face interaction without any distractions. It didn’t take any crazy amount of effort or planning, just a shared commitment to making sure we were with each other for at least two hours on a Tuesday night.
It’s something that could happen every week, if we wanted it to. And really, there’s no good reason why it shouldn’t happen more often.
Meaningful engagement with the people around us is often too easy to de-prioritize. We feel that just because we’re close to someone we don’t have to stoke the fires of the relationship. That we can wait three, six, or twelve months, and simply pick up where we left off.
But the reality is, prioritizing deep interpersonal interactions with other people—especially those closest to us—is a necessary part of living a fulfilled life. Taking care to cultivate meaningful social connections on a regular basis not only strengthens our bonds with those individuals, it adds dimension to our personal character.
Genuine connection makes us better people. The more we can collectively prioritize these kinds of interactions, the better off we’ll be.