In times of covid-19, dating apps innovate with new features
By Sadaf Ahsan June 11, To put it simply, dating is hell. Throw in a pandemic and, suddenly, it all seems entirely impossible. Dating no longer looks like sitting down to dinner at a restaurant, going to the movies or coming over for a drink. In an effort to continue pursuing romantic interests amidst COVID, however, people are getting creative and, as a result, getting more personal.
Several other online dating apps such as Bumble and Plenty of Fish have reported similar spikes in usage, particularly in places that have been.
W hen Caitie Bossart returned to the U. A part-time nanny looking for full-time work, she found her inbox filled with messages from companies that had instituted hiring freezes and from families who no longer wanted to bring a babysitter into their homes in response to the spread of COVID When their state issued stay-at-home orders, they decided to hole up together.
They ordered takeout and watched movies. In lieu of visiting museums or restaurants, they took long walks. They built a bond that felt at once artificial—trying to keep things light, they avoided the grimmer coronavirus-related topics that might dim the honeymoon period of a relationship—and promising. Under no other circumstance would they have spent such uninterrupted time together, and over the course of their confinement, her feelings for him grew. The challenges faced by singles , though, particularly millennials and Gen Zers, have often been fodder for comedy.
But for singles who have yet to find partners much less start families, isolation means the loss of that portion of life most young adults count on to forge grown-up friendships and romantic relationships. These digital natives, who through online apps have enjoyed a freedom to manage their social lives and romantic entanglements that previous generations lacked—swiping left or right, ghosting a bore, scheduling a late-night hookup—now find themselves unable to exercise that independence.
And for those who graduated from college into the last great recession with heavy student debt, there is the added worry of staring into another financial abyss as everything from gig work to full-time employment evaporates.
