A lot of questions have been swirling about as to what life will be like in a post-COVID-19 world. One question arising, again and again, is what dating will be like when the world is no longer on hold, particularly as various social norms have changed since the advent of COVID-19 in our lives.
Since social distancing and the lockdown began, we see more and more virtual dates taking place through apps like Bumble, which has added video chatting. Virtual dating may continue to be the norm when the COVID-19 quarantine ends, as people are expected to remain skeptical of meeting new people in person. It is clear that many people are not going to be comfortable with meeting someone in person, not knowing whom that other person had been in contact with. People already in relationships are also facing issues they never expected before the quarantine. Some have been forced to remain far away from each other, way beyond the social distancing requirement of six feet. Different people’s economic stresses, too, are not going to help in the aftermath of this virus crisis.
It will be interesting to see how casual dating and hook-up culture will be affected. People our age are known for our hook-up culture. One of my friends joked that we were now going to have to behave as if we were Orthodox Jews because of the no-touching rule in courtship in those communities. Who knew that the old song from the Beatles about wanting to just hold another person’s hands would become socially relevant again? I myself have compared the situation to returning to Jane Austen levels of repression from touching. On the other hand, some friends believe hook-up culture may return with a vengeance because everyone has been isolating and social distancing for the past few months.
As we slowly return to our pre-COVID-19 lives, and hope there is no second strain, we may well find ourselves becoming pickier, or find that we have developed different priorities for what we want in romantic relationships. The global pandemic has reframed so many of our public policy priorities, so why not our romantic priorities? As it is, we are definitely learning to appreciate how nice it is to have someone we can just see and talk to, let alone touch.
It’s hard to predict what the new normal will be after quarantine finally ends, particularly because we don’t know if ending quarantine will prove to have been a wise decision. I see many people establishing different boundaries for each of us to feel safe, and to feel happy or confident in our in-person interactions. Trust is definitely going to be a key issue even more so than it was before. Hopefully, this new normal will allow us the freedom to be single, form a romantic bond, or just hook up. There is no doubt that we will remain conscious in protecting not only our own health and safety, but those of others with whom we are in personal contact.