Quaran-time to find love?

Travel Editor Amy Harris tells us how to keep the spark alive while you're far apart

Amy Harris
20th May 2020
Image: Pexels / Hoàng Chương
Dating is already hard enough for our generation. But add quarantine, social distancing, and a global pandemic and it becomes a whole other ballpark to navigate.

In this article, I could discuss relationships in quarantine, but I feel that is a topic that deserves its own article. So I’m going to focus purely on dating and the "talking stage" while in quarantine.

There are three categories when it comes to dating in quarantine:

  1. You were dating before the lockdown was set and you had already physically met and been on a few dates.
  2. You had been speaking and were planning to meet for a date but quarantine and lockdown messed with all your plans and now you aren’t going to get the chance to meet for a while.
  3. You only just started talking since lockdown was initiated and quarantine began.

Why did COVID-19 have to ruin my love life when it was just getting good?!

And therefore there are different approaches, feelings, and outcomes to dating in quarantine. When you aren’t physically seeing the person it is hard to see if you’d have a connection in real life. There are so many questions… would we get on if we met? Are they just bored because we are all stuck at home with nothing to do? Will they get bored of me? Why did COVID-19 have to ruin my love life when it was just getting good?! Your head becomes full of worry and concern and you question whether you can successfully date someone while in lockdown...

So for those of you who are dating in quarantine, I have a few tips on how to continue dating... virtually:

FaceTime and Zoom Dates

This is quite an obvious one as loads of people were using FaceTime way before COVID-19 happened and the UK went into a nationwide lockdown, but now it's more important than ever to keep in contact with those around us. With the uncertainty of when lockdown will be over, anxiety soon floods in, and not physically seeing the person you like can get you down. So, arrange a FaceTime date and do something fun. Whether it is just to chat and catch up or to play games such as a pub quiz, Never Have I Ever or charades.

This leads on to my next point...

HouseParty for Games

HouseParty is an app for video calling people which uses your Snapchat ID, so it's pretty easy to find people - it's also great for chatting to friends and family also. But its best feature is being able to play games such as Trivia (where you can go through a selection of trivia questions on sport, entertainment, films, and general knowledge), Heads Up, Quick Draw and Chips and Guac (an association game). They can all be really fun and make a very entertaining for a virtual date night.

Netflix Party is a great way to watch films with other people, with a chat room on the side

Netflix Party

I only found out about Netflix Party recently (thanks to the Courier Team!) and it's a great way to watch films with other people, with a chat room on the side. So you can pick a film to watch, one of you can share the code to join and you can both watch a movie together from the comfort of your own room (we have no choice currently!). And if you are struggling to choose a movie to watch do a hat of movie names and pick one at random each time you want to Netflix Party.

Gifts on the doorstep

This one can be a little difficult depending on the situation. Not everyone lives in the same city at the moment due to people travelling back to their hometowns or some people are more vulnerable than others and can't risk having anything such as a gift brought in from someone else other than their own household. But if it is possible a little gift on the doorstep can be a nice way to tell them you are thinking of them in these distressing times.

If we thought dating was already a stressful minefield, now it's got us reaching new levels of concern. It's just typical, isn't it, that you start dating or talking to someone before quarantine, and everything is going well before BOOM a global pandemic stops everything in its tracks and we have to adapt to a whole new normal...

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