Relationships in quarantine
‘Quaranflings’ are the new trend in the world of online dating.
Ayear ago, even the most extreme hypochondriac couldn’t have imagined this new reality of quarantine and social distancing.
The year 2020 has redefined everyone’s concept of time. The days have felt so agonizingly slow yet in a blink, half the year has flown by. Now time is best represented as before COVID-19 and during COVID-19. We’re all just waiting and desperately praying for the aftermath of this pandemic to begin. But, with no available vaccine and a continuous rise in positive cases here in the Philippines, the end of the pandemic still seems out of reach.
The new measures for time are delineated by seemingly random occurrences: crowded spaces and standstill traffic mark everything that came before, while long grocery lines and the spike in the sales of instant yeast packets are reflective of right now. We’re still waiting on the after.
The coronavirus has definitely changed the way we move, the way we communicate and the way social gatherings look. Even online dating, an activity that was already done online, for the most part, feels different these days.
The landscape of all relationships is changing. After all, there’s only so much communication that can be done through a screen or from a safe distance of six feet away.
Friendships in the time of corona
One of the only perks of this pandemic is that it has allowed many to refocus on their relationships, whether it’s with one’s family, barkada or with old friends.
Prior to the pandemic, my college friends and I would rarely get together as an entire group anymore. Everyone constantly had something going on and
Another trick we’ve been trying to master is the delicate art of forming different shapes using each individual screen on Zoom. A task that requires a lot of coordination — it gets more and more difficult with each drink.
Online dating amid a pandemic
“Quaranflings” are the new trend in the world of online dating. Many are in a mad rush to find their “quaranfling” in an attempt to form emotional connections during this time of self-isolation. A friend of mine, one who has long been an avid user of several online dating platforms, told me that it’s actually more difficult to date now, despite the leaps made possible by technology.
“People are bored and lonely, online dating has become a platform to connect for the time being. But there’s no real investment built for the long run,” she shares. Swiping right is not necessarily tantamount to finding substantial connections or even good conversations now.
Though the same can be said about online dating before this pandemic, it seems to hit differently because no one is able to leave the house. It’s hard to build emotional ties with someone you’ve met only through a screen. A person’s mannerisms, quirks and idiosyncrasies do not translate well online. In many ways, it can feel like one is meeting an online persona, an online version of a person, as opposed to meeting the real person behind the screen.
How relationships will be formed after all this, one can only imagine.