When fifth-grader Eliana Fieldman sat on a Beachwood Park swingset in March 2020, she assumed the three-day school closure was just a temporary break. But a few days out of school turned into weeks, months and eventually the rest of the school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That transition to online learning left her feeling lonely and isolated — an experience that fundamentally changed how she and her peers interact. Now a Laurel School senior, Fieldman is channeling that experience into action. She is launching a youth-led initiative to help Cleveland teens rebuild real-world connection and combat social loneliness. That includes the “Find Your Thing Fair” on Oct. 10 at the Cleveland Public Library’s Learning Commons. The event aims to address teen social isolation by replacing passive event formats with active, face-to-face interaction.
Going to ‘life completely behind a screen’
Prior to the pandemic, Fieldman’s parents made it a point to keep her away from smartphones and most social media. The most she had at that time was an iPad, where she was allowed to make videos with her siblings.
She recalls that time: “I was given a laptop that I was on from 8:30 a.m. till 3 p.m. “I didn’t really have ways to connect with my friends, outside of messaging on Zoom during the school day. To go from an all in-person life to a life completely behind a screen was tough.”
The social experience of COVID-19 stuck with Fieldman as she grew older. When she returned to in-person learning in 2021, she realized how reliant she and her peers had become on technology and social media for communication. They were not used to genuine, in-person connections.
In 2023, she began researching teen social isolation. That research turned into a published brief, titled “The Practice of Belonging.” It is based on sociologist Mark Granovetter’s research on weak ties and public health data from the Surgeon General’s loneliness report.
In 1973, Granovetter conducted a survey of how 282 men in the United States got their jobs. He found that a person’s weak ties — meaning their loose acquaintances — were more helpful than their strong ones in securing employment.
“Your weak ties connect you to networks that are outside of your own circle,” Granovetter said in a 2022 interview. “They give you information and ideas that you otherwise would not have gotten.”
That framing is something that Fieldman used to develop her project.
“Those moments of small talk with people that are weak ties, the guy who checks out your groceries or the girl you see on the bus, are so important to adolescent development,” Fieldman said. “You can’t just introduce yourself to a stranger without a level of understanding of how a social situation works. That’s something I think the pandemic took away from us.”
Likes and filters
Eileen Anderson, the Anne Templeton Zimmerman, MD Professor of Bioethics and a psychological anthropologist at Case Western Reserve University, emphasizes that loose acquaintances help set the stage for adolescent social development.
“Weak ties expand adolescent social networks beyond family circles and provide essential practice in talking to unfamiliar people, a skill that pandemic-era youth missed,” Anderson said.
According to Anderson, casual daily interactions with weak ties help teenagers learn how to navigate unfamiliar social situations outside their immediate circles. She also highlighted how social media and constant digital connectivity have altered adolescent self-expression. She noted that online spaces force teenagers to hyper-curate their image while seeking instant peer validation.
“What youth put out about themselves on social media is already edited and curated more so than if you just ran into somebody in the store. … In the electronic sphere, it gives you a whole other level of trying to edit your presence,” Anderson said.
Unlike low-stakes, face-to-face encounters, digital interactions often heighten social anxiety and impede the development of essential interpersonal skills. She emphasized that participating in collaborative, real-world activities helps young people cultivate crucial soft skills — such as teamwork, communication, and adaptability. Those are vital for long-term personal and academic success.
“Weak ties expand adolescent social networks beyond family circles and provide essential practice in talking to unfamiliar people, a skill that pandemic-era youth missed,” Anderson said.
Eileen Anderson
In her research, Fieldman found that teen isolation extends far beyond social discomfort — it carries severe physical and mental health risks comparable to major lifestyle health factors. Drawing from the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on loneliness, she highlighted how prolonged social disconnection in adolescents can lead to heightened rates of anxiety, depression and long-term health consequences.
One of the most staggering statistics: The health impact of chronic loneliness equals smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
No-phone zone
In 2025, Ohio required every publicly funded school to adopt a policy prohibiting cell phone use by students during the instructional day by Jan. 1, 2026. Although Laurel is a private school, they implemented a policy requiring students to dock their cell phones in 2024 — and later iPads, smartwatches and other mobile devices — in the school office each day. According to Megan Weiskopf, director of Teaching and Learning and co-director of Laurel’s Center for Research for Girls, the move was driven by research showing that the presence of phones reduces cognitive capacity and hinders face-to-face connection.
“One of the key takeaways that we took from the research was that it can take over 20 minutes to refocus following a cell phone distraction,” Weiskopf said. “Over time, such distractions may interfere with building prolonged concentration.”
Initial challenges included parent and student concerns regarding communication about school pick-up logistics, potential family issues and timekeeping for classes. Laurel addressed those concerns by installing a PA system with bell tones to signal class changes and implementing a multi-channel emergency alert system that can send out robocalls, emails and texts to parents in the event of an emergency.
Engaging in small talk
In a follow-up survey the following spring, nearly half of student respondents reported increased productivity during study periods, while faculty noted a distinct shift toward more authentic peer engagement.
“In terms of atmosphere, we have definitely noticed more face-to-face conversation in the dining room and during free periods,” Weiskopf said.
Despite early skepticism from some of her peers, Fieldman believes the policy has been positive overall and said she has noticed a difference in the way interactions are taking place.
“I feel like people say ‘hi’ a lot more,” Fieldman said. “Something that came up in my research was the idea of phubbing [snubbing others while using a phone], which I don’t see as much anymore. I appreciate it.”
While phone bans like Laurel’s are gaining momentum, Anderson notes that removing devices is only half the equation. She emphasizes that the ultimate effectiveness of school phone bans depends on what fills the void.
“It’s not just what’s taken away — it’s what’s put in its place,” Anderson said. “They need some practice to learn how to communicate with people who are different than they are and learn how to engage in small talk in a way that doesn’t make them feel worse about themselves.”
Find Your Thing Fair
Driven by her findings and a desire to bridge these social gaps, Fieldman founded Youth Connect CLE, a nonprofit helping high schoolers improve their social health, to turn her findings into direct action. The interactive, “Find Your Thing Fair”, is a curated experience meant to encourage making new social connections.
To prevent attendees from simply walking past tables and picking up pamphlets, Fieldman designed research-backed interactive methods to spark meaningful conversations. Attendees will participate in gamified icebreakers, such as a “bead bracelet passport” — where participants earn different colored beads from participating organizations for engaging in conversations — and a “human bingo” game.
Anderson praises Fieldman’s approach, noting that semi-structured, shared activities, like the interactive icebreakers featured in the upcoming fair, play a vital role in easing social anxiety by providing a shared goal, helping young people rebuild real-world relational skills and confidence.
Fourteen organizations covering sports, arts, nature and civic engagement have confirmed participation, including Holden Arboretum, Lake Erie Ink, the LGBTQ Center’s QU initiative, and the Cleveland Clinic Youth and College Education group.
“These organizations serve all Cleveland neighborhoods,” Fieldman said. “It’s for young people wherever they are, which was the goal.”
Looking ahead
Beyond the upcoming fair, Fieldman is captain of Laurel’s swim team and serves on the youth advisory board for “Only Seven Seconds,” a suicide prevention organization, where she contributes to a subcommittee focused on vetting AI-driven resources for teenagers. Looking ahead, she plans to develop a legacy toolkit for the “Find Your Thing Fair” so other students can continue the initiative after she graduates.
“I would love for it to be something that I can make into a legacy plan and pass over to somebody else and say this was what I started, here’s the concept, here’s all the materials I used,” Fieldman said.
“I want this to be something that can touch all sorts of teens everywhere for years to come. If what I’m doing really strikes a chord with somebody else and this is something they want to continue, I’m all for it.”
The Find Your Thing Fair will take place on Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 4 p.m. The fair will be hosted at the Cleveland Public Library Learning Commons, 325 Superior Ave. This event is designed for teenagers ages 13 to 18, but all ages are welcome to attend. Registration is required as space is limited. To reserve your spot, click here. To learn more about Youth Connect CLE, click here.
