How to Date During a Pandemic

Another option to choose from is Bumble. This dating app is unique, as it forces the woman to make the first move in any same-sex match. For men, you get to take a step back from that first-message anxiety that has plagued us all. On the other hand, women get to force themselves to come up with creative ways of saying hello for the hundredth time that week!

Bumble and Tinder are both excellent options for casual flings and those looking for something more profound. Though, if a deep connection and soulmate-worthy match is what you’re looking for, we recommend going with Hinge. This app is targeted towards people who don’t like dating around. It’ll also significantly lower your odds of finding someone you don’t click with. With the format of this app, you’ll be shown profiles of people who have mutual social media friends with you, so there’s a smaller dating pool to deal with.

Not a fan of dating apps? Some people have been left on read one too many times to consider giving it another go. Fortunately, there are still other ways to meet people without opening your front door!

Who says that blind dates need to be a pre-pandemic form of dating? While you might not get the rush of meeting a stranger at a restaurant, you can still let your friends and family set you up. Have a mutual friend or two organise a Zoom meeting and duck out of the call once both parties have arrived. While you will need to rely on trusting your friends’ judgement, this way of meeting people is a great way to reminisce about the dating scene of days past!

For those who really want to find that spark, plenty of online spaces are offering virtual speed dating. Organizers of these events will host Zoom meetings where they then send off pairs into breakout rooms for a brief period of time, mimicking the typical format of fast meeting. You can choose to attend an online speed dating event in your area or broaden your horizons and go on brief dates with people from all around the world!

How to Keep Connecting

Now that we’ve covered the ground rules of meeting people and learning how to date during a pandemic, you might be wondering what on Earth there is to actually do if you aren’t supposed to leave your home! Sure, it can be frustrating not to take a new love interest to see your favourite band or see a movie to avoid that awkward first date small talk. But with the entire internet at your fingers, you might learn that there are more options than you thought.

Virtual meet-ups through video chat applications are the new norm of dating. This is when you use a platform that meshes well with virtual dating, like Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime. There is far more freedom in this communication method when compared to phone calls, which limit you to your voice alone. If you’re trying to convince someone to see you after the world calms down, you’ll want to be able to see more than their phone number on your screen, after all!

Usage of Zoom, the current favourite of virtual dating, spiked at the start of the pandemic. Seeing more than 300 million daily participants, it’s clear that this method of connection is here to stay. While our fingers remain crossed that the world opens back up again soon, it seems as if long-distance friendships and relationships will remain long after restaurants open. So, we better get used to it now!

Having personal conversations over virtual meet-ups is a fine idea. It’s the easiest way to get to know somebody! Though, there are various other date ideas that you can explore while utilising online communication. To keep things exciting and avoid growing bored of your socially distant lover, we’ve compiled some of our favourites.

Virtual Paint Nights

Getting goofy and creating art is always a fun date idea. And there is no reason that you can’t do it just because you aren’t in the same room! Go out and buy the same set of art supplies as your dating partner or order identical shopping carts online to ensure that you’re both on even playing fields.

There are hundreds of easy-to-follow art tutorials available online, from YouTube how-to videos to Bob Ross painting lessons. Keep your art out of view from the camera until the end, and voila! You can both marvel at your art skills (or lack thereof). To make things memorable, you can even deliver your painting to your date as a reminder of how much fun you both had.

Dinner and a Movie In

While some of us might like the challenge of finding unique dating ideas, others rely on the classic, tried-and-true activities. You can’t go to a restaurant and a theatre, but you can still watch a movie and eat dinner with your date!

Pick a restaurant that you both love and order your meals to your separate living spaces. Eat your dinner over your video chat, and then turn on a movie using an application like Netflix Party! These extensions allow users to sync your video feedback, ensuring that you never have to waste time trying to pause during the right scene.

If you love to cook, you can also try to teach your date how to make your favourite recipe through your video call. Send over all the essential ingredients and hope that they can follow along in time for the movie!

Have a Game Night With Friends

One of the toughest things about organising game nights with friends used to be finding the time where you could all get together. Now that we’re desperate for some good quality hangouts, it’s never been easier to meet up online. Combine this ease with the desire to spend time with your new date in a social setting, and you have got yourself the perfect virtual meet-up idea!

Organise a virtual call with your own group of friends and merge it with a call that your partner is on with their friends. Services like Jackbox Games make it possible for you all to play house party games, board games, and other exciting challenges all together for less than the price of your typical arcade entrance fee.

Can You Still Date During a Pandemic? Of Course!

We won’t lie to you: learning how to date during a pandemic can be exhausting. Trust me – as a sasquatch, I know a thing or two about wanting to avoid reaching out to people. There is nothing worse than wanting to get to know somebody only to be left feeling limited by their screen time. While it may be rough at times, there are so many benefits that we haven’t even realised yet. Just think – decades from now you might be telling your kids about how you met during a global pandemic! How cool is that?

In addition to the chaos and excitement of it all, there are plenty of practical reasons why learning how to date during a pandemic has its upsides. You get to save money on pricey restaurants and new outfits. Some date-goers might feel safer starting a new relationship from the confines of their home. And finally, you get to work on developing emotional connections before you journey forward with the more serious stuff!

Advice for online dating in 2021 sounds dramatically different than ever before. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try! So, get out there, send messages to everybody that catches your eye, and don’t shy away from some special virtual meet-ups!