From mutual followers to real-life friends: Northwestern students find community on Twitter

Illustration by Meher Yeda Since the onset of the pandemic, the number of NU students looking for an online community has drastically increased, leading some to build friendships through Twitter. Meher Yeda, Design EditorApril 21, 2021Twitter can be an endless cycle of memes, news and the occasional celebrity apology. But some Northwestern students have also found unexpected friendships through the social media platform.  NU Twitter, a colloquial term for the community students have built, is a digital space for students to share their thoughts on everything from the University to pop culture to their lives. McCormick sophomore Hugh-Jay Yu and a self-described member of NU Twitter said he initially created a Twitter account in high school. It wasn’t until the start of the pandemic that he began to see more NU content on his timeline. “There are people who I’ve never seen in person, but we have that level of knowledge about each other’s lives,” Yu said. “I feel (more) up to date on the people in my life that I follow on Twitter versus the people in my life that I don’t.” According to Medill freshman Elisabeth Betts, NU Twitter has allowed her to not only connect with freshmen,…
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