The Truth About Online Dating During A Global Pandemic

Generally speaking, online dating is a bit like shopping in TK Maxx (global pandemic aside). 

You stride in full of hope, only to realise that you have to rifle through a ton of sub par clothes to get to something that sparks your interest - and that’s on a good day.

Every other day, it’s like trying to find a needle in a gigantic haystack. You spend hours trawling through potential garments, only to realise after an hour of searching that there’s nothing worth spending your time or money on.

But then there’s that one special day where you strike gold. You walk into a branch you’ve never been to on a whim, and it’s like it knows exactly what you’re after. There, nestled in between the rows lies the thing you never knew you wanted, hanging neatly in the racks in plain sight. Maybe this will be the first date to kick off a lifetime of dates, or maybe it’s just the start of something casual. If it’s the former, you’ve lucked out. If it’s the latter, don’t worry. When you read the label later, you’ll realise it was 90% polyester anyway. 

Online dating in a year with a global pandemic then, by comparison, is like trying to find a rare type of genetically modified crop on the black market, without the aid of a computer or access to the internet. 

It’s a mixed analogy, I’ll admit, but I’m sticking by it. 

Because that’s what 2020 was. A cement mixer of doubt, insecurity and fear being churned together into some kind of brown sludge. Meanwhile everyone’s trying to pretend it’s not so bad but the sludge has just kept on coming for 12 miserable months. 

What I mean, is that if you’ve been single in 2020, you’ll know better than anyone that dating has been REALLY hard. All of the opportunities you previously had to meet people have been snatched away from you - no meeting friends of friends at the pub, no snogging in the corner at a house party and no more meaningless flings. Unless you were prepared to potentially lock down for several months with a person who you’d gone on one date with, drunkenly let them have a boob fondle before deciding it probably wasn’t worth it. Which let’s be honest, no one was prepared to do. 

We’ve needed the help of our friends over at Hinge, Bumble, Tinder and Grindr to keep us feeling alive and wanted amidst the cloud of confusion. We’ve tried our hand at socially distanced dates - whether it’s awkward sober Sunday walks in the park, an awkward attempt at a Zoom with a relative stranger, or strolling around an indoor mini golf centre wearing a mask and finishing the course in 10 minutes flat because you’re practically the only people there (maybe that was just me). It’s been a cruel new world for those of us that needed a form of human connection beyond our friendships.

Luckily the world has given us even more dating apps to dip our eager toes into, with Thursday app trying to pin Thursdays as the best day of the week to not only date, but the only day you can actually use their app. Another newbie to the dating scene is Meet Cue (a play on the phrase from the old guy in The Holiday who explains the meet cute). Fighting against newly coined FOBO (fear of the better option), Meet Cue wants to get you out and about ASAP by empowering human connection. They also have Meet Cue after hours with hosts Eliza Batten and Verity Bowditch (you may know them from MIC) where they take to IG Live to interview guests on their dating woes. Reassuring to know it’s not just us struggling out there. 

With this all in mind, I don’t know about you, but I feel like maybe summer 2021, is the ONE.

It could be the one for reigniting with an old flame after a year of reflection, it could be the one for downloading all the apps and dating like it’s going out of style, it could be the one for a sexual revolution - who knows, the point is, it’s here and we’re ready for it.