How Coronavirus Saved My Dating Life

You know that rare feeling when you’re swiping right on Tinder or filing through your likes on Hinge, and you come across someone who actually seems interesting? Or, what about the feeling when you match and find out you two have a lot in common? Then, because of the deep connection, you decide to meet up. No? Me neither.

For me, matching with people on dating apps involves a lot of anxiety and premeditated standards. I’d like to preface by saying that I’ve never been fond of the online-dating-verse. The thought of saying that I met my husband or wife on a dating app actually makes me want to shrivel up. I’d much rather first meet someone through a friend or by chance in a coffee shop rather than spend time picking apart their profile through a screen. The second High School Musical movie is your favorite? No, thank you. Your bio reads, “Here for a good time, not a long time”? I’m swiping left. You have only one picture of yourself? What are you hiding?

Source: Online Dating Sound Barrier

The trouble is, I don’t actually like matching with people. I hate the anxiety that comes with the possibility of matching because then paranoia emerges over if we’ll have anything to talk about. I know this defeats the purpose, but I still use these platforms because like many other people, I still want to find a person that I could love. Now, due to all the corona-centered madness and quarantine extensions, I’ve been forced to embrace the apps once again, and I must admit, my experience has been a lot more positive than I expected.

Now that there’s almost zero pressure to meet up in person due to fear of catching COVID-19, I actually get the chance to talk to people and get to know them before deciding whether or not I could actually like them. Since quarantine has brought out the eccentricity in most, people are more inclined to have genuine conversations and to open up. Maybe they don’t just tell me their favorite song, but also how it became their favorite song. Maybe they tell me something that they loved about their childhood. There are a lot of different conversations happening now than there were pre-virus, and when in doubt, you can always talk about quarantine.

Source: GQ

From the perspective of someone as anxiety-ridden as me, I find it so much easier to match with people now more than ever because I can do all of the cute dating things without any pressure. FaceTime dates have made sure of it! I don’t have to get flustered about what to wear, where we should go, or what to say. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t have to fake an emergency phone call or feel pressured about any potential physical intimacy. After all, if there really is a lack of connection, I probably won’t even have to see them face-to-face again. And if they’re really bad, I can always block them.

Facetime dates and Netflix Party have been great options for dating in quarantine. Now, we can all slow down and take a note or two from the original dating book and actually go on dates before committing to one another. Pre-quarantine, nobody was really dating before committing. It was always just a brief stage of “talking” before rushing into a relationship. With hookup culture being put on pause, we can take the time to get to know each other, digitally date, and then make the ultimate decision of whether to commit or not. It’s a change of pace, but it sure has eased some of the anxiety that comes along with online dating.