27 Apr 2020

Look, I’d be a liar if I said my love life was poppin’ before isolation. But, and with a full chest, I will continue to use isolation, social distancing rules and this pandemic as an excuse as to why I don’t have a romantic partner! Who’s with me!?

Now with that very important and essential message out of the way (just joking), there’s no doubt that there’s been some sort of divide created by isolation. I’m talking about people with partners and people who are single. I am a part of the single crowd.

Being single during this time is a bit… lonesome. Funny that. What I’m trying to get at is that it feels particularly lonely. Whether that’s because I’m recently single, all my friends are in relationships or I just love chasing what I can’t have – it’s just a looming sense of loneliness.

And it seems that in isolation, a lot of the single crowd share this same feeling. This is because the single people are ready to mingle by flocking to dating apps and sliding into people’s insta DMs. And boy oh boy, tuning someone in isolation is truly something else - let me tell you.

 

At first, I didn’t think much of tuning someone during isolation. Rather, I thought it was just another day at the office in the online dating world – ghosting, unsolicited pics, you know, the works. In fact, I assumed chats would just fizzle out, especially given that we’re in isolation and it’s unlikely you will ever have a date in real life.

But when you’re cooped up alone, it’s extremely difficult to ditch the attention someone is giving you. Especially when the other person is actually pretty cool and you’re enjoying chatting with them.

It’s not long until the two of you exchange numbers, insta handles and snapchats. Everything is going swimmingly – you’re snapping each other back and forth, there’s no being left on delivered, read or opened, you’re sharing funny TikToks and you’re even coming up with creative ways to do things together like play games on Houseparty.

Before you know it, you’re wishing deep down for isolation to be over sooner rather than later so you the two of you could actually go on a date.

As days pass, everything seems to be going well. But slowly, you start to notice a shift in conversation – almost like boredom. Messages are not as frequent as they used to be, you’re overthinking punctuation use and they’re mustering up the nerve to leave your snaps on opened and messages on read. Like c’mon mate, we’re in isolation, what’s your excuse now?

But that’s the thing – just like online dating, tuning someone in isolation can become very intense very quickly. You’re not always certain which parts of your connection are authentic. And in the current climate of isolation, our feelings seem more intense.

It’s easy to get in ya head, but just remember you’re still in the tuning stages with someone. Things don’t always work out, and you defs shouldn’t blame yourself. Sometimes you just aren’t vibing and that’s life, baby.

But don’t let this deter you in your quest for true modern love! There is a chance that you could find a great match, a random occurrence that will end as soon as you meet – as soon as lockdown allows you to, that is.