Love in the Quarantine Age
One study shows that today’s young are okay with ending relationships through text or social media
The Covid-19 pandemic has limited our physical socialization with one another, but this doesn’t mean that we should let it take us away from having meaningful relationships with our loved ones. Now more than ever, we need to build loving relationships with our family, friends, and special someone, for it is vital for our overall health.
But one might ask, has this pandemic changed the way we see love, especially for the social media-savvy and technology-driven young?
To answer this, Havas Ortega Group conducted a study named “Love in the Quarantine Age.”
The result of the research was unveiled through a comedic show titled Powerpoint PartTWI: Love in the Quarantine Age, which is also an online fundraising project that aims to help Filipino artists and creative workers who lost their jobs and income during the pandemic.
The result
There were 5,000 prosumers (defined as leading-edge consumers, the first ones to try products, services, and experiences) across the globe who participated in the study.
The study shows that 62 percent of today’s young said that it would be easier to break up with someone through text or social media. Now, this might sound surprising and a bit heartless, but looking at the 74 percent who believe that people don’t try hard enough to maintain long-term relationships, one will understand why they concluded that it’s easy to break a relationship at a (virtual) distance.
The young might also be cynical about lasting relationships but it’s undeniable that they are hopeless romantics and are still longing for deep, meaningful relationships a.ka. true love. All 55,000 prosumers—yes, 100 percent of them—believe that love can last forever. They are also aware that true love is hard to find, and that they are willing to wait until the right one comes along.
Love in the Quarantine Age shows that 91 percent of prosumers believe that it’s better to take their time in finding the right partner rather than commit too early to someone who would not stay forever, while the 78 percent think that people who spend their lives without romantic partner(s) are missing out on important parts of life.
With the advent of technology, connection has never been more accessible.
With everyone confined in the comfort of their homes, we communicate through social media and other online platforms. To some extent, even dating is done virtually. Despite having fast connections and the rise of dating apps, still, majority of prosumers or 70 percent of them said that dating was easier for the earlier generation and 51 percent know that sex has nothing to do with falling in love. Of the prosumers, 89 percent are championing the improvement of love and sex education.
Just as important among the findings is that although today’s young might appear career-driven, 98 percent of them are hoping to have a child because having a child “is one of life’s ultimate achievements.
Has this pandemic changed the way we see love, especially for the social media-savvy and technology-driven young?