A part of me always used to think that finding a compatible partner would be easy, but as I grew into a young adult, I quickly realised that I was wrong; Easy was replaced with difficult. Unfortunately, the reality isn’t reading off a romance movie script and we are not destined to bump into someone at the coffee shop or coincidentally reach for the same book in a bookstore at the same time as a handsome stranger. I’m not being pessimistic; I’m just being realistic.
Nowadays, Tinder or Badoo or even the new Facebook dating graces our screens with their presence because meeting people nowadays isn’t permitted. Although it’s not against the law to meet people, we still can have social contacts, but we can’t do what we used to do in previous times with meeting random people and visiting people’s houses. My dating options are strictly limited to Tinder and online acquaintances, but that’s as far as I’ll allow myself to stretch, no further. As a frontline worker, I don’t allow myself to meet with any new people and even though meeting new people has brought me out of my comfort zone and has made me feel more confident in myself, it feels somewhat reassuring to talk to someone online for a bit rather than rushing in to meet them straight away.
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a major spanner into the works when it comes to dating people, but I think that we are viewing it as a purely bad thing, we need to learn to read between the lines and find the good amongst the cloud of endless swipes and fizzled out conversations. Meeting people to see how they are in person teaches us to realise who they are as a person and how they speak to us as well as experiencing their actions towards us, it helps us to judge whether they are compatible for a future second date. I find that talking to people online is a secret test to see if they are serious or merely just another time-waster, some people falling at the first obstacle with many starting off strong and losing their focus somewhere in the middle. I’m still waiting for one to emerge victorious from the test, but I don’t make it easy. I call it playing hard to get; if someone wants me in their life as I want them in mine, then they need to be able to keep my attention, they need to be able to just be themselves!
Getting to know a person virtually isn’t as boring as you think it may be, once you find that person then you’ll find that conversations flow easily without them being forced. You’ll get a little smile that’ll tug at your lips when their name shows up on your phone screen and you’ll find that messaging them or video-chatting them becomes a favourite part of your daily routine. Virtual communication is all we have nowadays, its importance can’t be emphasised enough.
Dating has made a new profile on Tinder and their bio clearly states “looking to connect people on a virtual level! Loves DMCs, virtual dates and socially distanced hot chocolate dates”. Meanwhile, it seems that the Covid-19 pandemic has also made a profile and people are curious to know what their bio reads. Let me feed that niggling inquisitiveness by sharing their bio: “Don’t even know why I’m here…boredom I guess. Don’t reply that much, hit me up on my Snapchst covid_maskislife”. The news just keeps getting better as there have been numerous reports of Dating giving Covid-19 pandemic a super like on Tinder with pandemic’s profile responding with a swipe right; could this be a match made in heaven or hell?
