“Everyone is our brothers, isn’t that how you think? I feel like we’re all one family,” Chris Martin said during his impromptu jam session on Facebook and Instagram.

Chris, lead singer and founder of the band Coldplay, created the hashtag #TogetherAtHome as a way to check in with people and see what he could do for everyone. He performed his concert from home, taking requests and talking to the thousands of people watching online. And for 30 minutes, he entertained us with his musical talent and his humanity.

For just a little while, we put our worries aside—we weren’t alone at all.

We’re in this together.

The only other time I experienced anything like this—the complete disruption of our daily way of life— was after 9/11. Back then, there were people directly responsible for the attacks, and we knew who to hold accountable. This time is different.

A microscopic virus has brought us to our knees, closing businesses and canceling mass gatherings, including major sporting events. Schools closed, the stock market crashed, and we were sent into social isolation.

We’re all the same.

COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate by gender or race. It doesn’t care where we live, or how much money we have. Even to this tiny virus, we’re all in this together.

And we’re angry. We’re angry at hoarders and people buying too many goods. We direct our anger at other countries for letting the virus out, at Trump for not doing a better job preparing, and at all the people who aren’t taking the climate crisis and veganism more seriously.

These are valid issues, and we’ll have plenty of time to debate them after the immediate crisis has passed. We’ll have opportunities to educate people about the facts and to identify what could better help us and our planet moving forward.

But for today, none of that matters.

What matters most is helping each other through this. Many of us will get sick, fewer will die—but countless will suffer economically and financially from this crisis. Whether we’re small business owners trying to survive, or the many of us who are having to work to pay bills and support families, we’re not sure how we’ll make it through this.

We’re suffering, and we’re all in this together.

Many of us are part of wonderful online communities—but not all of us are. Some feel lonelier and more isolated than others. We can take this opportunity to use our social media communities to support and include each other.

Connected, we have much more strength, resilience, and creativity than we do alone. We will get through this together.

We can pray for each other and come together in the only way we can—from home. We can follow Chris Martin’s lead and use social media to our advantage to be #TogetherAtHome.

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“I feel like the right thing to be doing is to stay quiet and stay at home, and not buy too much toilet paper.” ~ Chris Martin