Male bonding taken to a deeper level
IT TOOK a global pandemic and a badly timed breakup for Manny Argueta to realise just how far he had grown apart from his guy friends.
Early in the Covid-19 outbreak, after the 35-year-old had left the home he shared with his former girlfriend and moved into a studio apartment in suburban Falls Church, Virginia, on his own, he would go an entire week without saying a word.
There were no more game days with the guys, no more Friday nights in downtown bars, and Argueta was starved for social interaction. He returned to his PlayStation 4, jumping on the microphone with a stranger while playing just to hear someone’s voice. He discovered the messaging app Discord and started chatting with his old gamer friends and, even when he didn’t have the game set up himself.
