As COVID-19 slowly penetrates and settles into our day-to-day life, we begin to compare how each aspect of our lives was pre-covid versus during the pandemic. From our professional lives to our personal lives, not one dimension has been left unscathed. Romantic relationships are no exception to this.
If someone in 1950 was told that in another 70 years online dating would be the new normal, they would be both appalled and amused. We have come a long way from marrying people you barely knew to dating people that you are interested in. Even though online dating is definitely not the norm, it is certainly becoming more normalized as we tear the dates off the calendar.
Factors that Influence Online Dating
Now, people who are aware of online dating but have never experienced it may be inclined to think that the online dating business must have skyrocketed during the pandemic. No need to leave your house, getting to meet new people from the comfort of your own home; sounds like a dream, right? However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for the most part. This is not to say online dating doesn’t happen at all. It does. People do like meeting new people and with the added advantage that they don’t need to worry about protection from the virus, some people are very much for this new change.
- Negative Influences
- An idle mind is the Devil’s Workshop
The problem arises only when people start pretending to seem more likeable. It always used to happen but it has found new blood now. The Pandemic and the newfound freedom of time that we have has led to most people putting a lot of time and thought into what they want their ‘Ideal Selves’ to be. (‘Ideal Self’ refers to the self/person a person aspires to be) This sudden surge is sparked by the Inferiority Complex that people face from seeing other people who seem ‘cool’, ‘handsome’, ‘beautiful’, ‘aesthetic’ and so on.
- Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something
Another issue that has become a hindrance to online dating is that people tend to either be too lazy or too tentative to put themselves out there. Let me elaborate. With the new normal of staying inside our houses 24/7, everyone has unleashed the inner sloth in them. As far as academics/business goes, there is only so much effort that a person is willing to take about their appearance because the general thought is ‘No one’s going to knock on my doorstep to see if I’m properly dressed or whether I have combed my hair.’ One more contributing factor to this is that, even if things take a turn for the worse, you can simply turn off your camera and poof! What problem?
Due to this, people can become too lazy to even consider dating. A new level of comfort called ‘Lockdown’ is handed to them on a silver platter. People can also become tentative to date. Some people fail to realize that the word ‘Global’ in ‘Global Pandemic’ refers to the fact that everyone in the world is facing this. They seem to think everyone is doing better in the pandemic, unlike them and lose any interest in any potential romantic relationships.
- Positive Influences
It is a great feeling, meeting someone new; your world seems so amazing, it feels like two!
However, it’s not always problematic in the world of online dating. There are many individuals who are here for this advancement in the world of romance. The advantage, according to them, is that prospective partners get to meet them for who they are. There is no dressing up to impress the other (unless that’s what they want to do) and one person is able to see others as how they actually are. They get to experience someone else’s world and see how they fit into that world even before making any commitment.
I’d like to leave you with one phrase I’ve heard that fits online dating in the present perfectly, ‘The world is my bedroom and you all are just in it.’ While it’s not clear whether online dating is the gold standard for finding new love, one thing is for sure: As we have gone from offering a handshake to offering hand sanitizer on the first meet, online dating has marked its presence for the foreseeable future. It’s not just here for a fling, it’s here for the whole damn thing!
References:
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/love-sex/online-dating-how-the-world-of-online-dating-transformed-during-the-pandemic/articleshow/79189120.cms
- https://www.bbc.com/whttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1ayX0NJ8WtsR31Uy4PO72JOIybGlp6kXM5gErj7LWpqI/edit?usp=drivesdkorklife/article/20201116-how-the-pandemic-has-changed-our-romantic-relationships
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