When life gets busy, it can be hard to find time to make friends.
That’s a problem the Speak Up! Society at St. Mary’s University hoped to solve when it hosted a “speed-friending” event on Feb. 11.
“It’s like speed dating. Two people who don’t know each other meet, except we didn’t do speed-dating between girls and boys, just speed-friending,” said Scott Xing, co-president of the Speak Up! Society.
The event gave people a chance to put away their phones, have a snack, and talk for a few minutes, Xing said. It was also a chance for international and Canadian students to meet each other.
He said the goal of Speak Up! is to provide students who don’t speak English as their first language the chance to get to know those who do and get practice.
The speed-friending event also included the game of human bingo. People have to find others who fill specific categories, such as speaking more than two languages or someone who is from outside Canada.
Lorne Campbell, assistant professor of psychology at Western University, said speed takes advantage of the “fast friends paradigm”: People become closer to each other over a short period of time by revealing more and more about themselves.
“By having people come together and share about themselves, they would be more likely to feel friendly after small amounts of information and time,” Campbell said.
Humans are social by nature and we like to be around other like-minded people, he said. It is easy for students to feel lonely at university when they do not feel connected to others around them.
“If you have people coming from different high schools all over Canada and the world, putting them in one spot for the first time can be a little challenging,” he said.
Xing said of the almost 100 people who came out to the event, most were first- or second-year students who weren’t as comfortable with university yet.
“When students go to university in their first year they don’t know each other and it’s a new environment to them,” Xing said. “We would like to provide an event for those students to familiarize them with school life and give them an opportunity to make friends with new people.”
Campbell said all types of connections between people are important. Romantic ones are just as important as platonic friendships that a speed-friending could form.
The Speak Up! Society’s event was co-ordinated with Dalhousie University’s Universal Student Support group (USS), which is also in Halifax. Speed-friending also allowed students from St. Mary’s and Dalhousie to make connections with each other, Xing said.
He said the event was a huge success and people have already asked him to hold another event next year.
