Despite Pandemic Iowans Still Made Friends Last Year

Iowa nice strikes again, we love making friends. I am honestly surprised this number isn't higher. I myself have made a few new online friends through video games, and social media over the last year, since, well we were all stuck inside.

It turns out that Iowans have made 3 virtual friends, on average. Which is crazy since that is the exact number of new friends I've made. Whoever is behind this study knows what's up.

Freecell-Challenge.com, conducted a survey of 3,000 internet users to find out how many have formed friendships online over this last year during the pandemic. It was discovered that almost 1 in 4 Iowans has made 'virtual friends' during the pandemic. This means people they have never and may never meet in person.

25% is a pretty big part of a population, but when broken down across states, it seems Kansans spent the most time socializing online during the pandemic, with over 50% of people there having made virtual friends.

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When it comes to our neighboring states, 21% of people from Missouri made new friends, only 19% of Nebraska's residents made friends, while 33% of South Dakota have new online friends. On the lower end, Minnesota was at 14% and Wisconsin is only at 11% Illinois' population hit 14%, but those are still not the lowest in the state.

The lowest percentage was actually a tie, only 8% of those in Connecticut and Montana say they’ve formed online friendships.

If this study showed us anything it's that people are social creatures, and even when we're stuck in the home, many of us will still try and find ways to reach out and make new friends through the internet, games, and social media.

Did you make a new online friend this year? Let us know. You can see the rest of the state's rankings here.