Social Distancing for Social Creatures

If you are a teen, or know a teen, or have been a teen, you know that teens are extremely social and mostly everything we do is with our peers. Due to this, social distancing measures and shelter-in-place orders become difficult for teens to comply with. My friends and I all understand how important these orders are to see a downward trend in cases occur, but when we see breaches in the orders by other kids on their Snapchat stories, sometimes we ask ourselves: is this bending of the rules genuinely still safe?

Teens are smart; we take calculated risks. None of us are going out and partying with 50 other people; to be completely honest, I don't think that anyone would be able to find 50 other teens that would want to party together right now. But what are the dangers in hanging out with only one other person, if that person does not hang out with anyone else either?

Let's say that their (and your) parents are both working from home, so there is no chance of contamination from them, except for one trip to the grocery store every 2 weeks. Your friend is staying inside the whole time, so they couldn't have caught it anywhere.

This same situation extends to a group of friends who do everything together. If they only hang out with each other, is that acceptable? Or do the increasing number of people just increase the number of confounding variables?

If I have seen any "bending" of this shelter-in-place order, it has been only with one other person or one group consistently. So I want to ask all of my many viewers the question: are there any dangers with this mentality, and if so, what are they? Do these dangers outweigh the benefits, and do they change with the number of people? Weigh in with your opinion below!

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