We’ve seen a lot of things change over the last year and a half. There have been stay-at-home orders, lockdowns and social distancing protocols forcing us to interact with a very small circle of people. Sexologist and author of The Game of Desire Shan Boodram shows what this means for singles who are dating, looking for relationships or looking to hook up.

Are people dating during this pandemic?

There are a lot of people that are dating during the pandemic but studies have shown that there was a decline in dating and now we’re starting to get back to normalcy.

People are meeting people online still just like they have been since 2016.  If this had happened years ago, we wouldn’t have had a culture of dating online and it would have been completely foreign to people.

Now when it comes to the type of date you go on depends on your values around social distancing. Some people could be meeting up at a bar and for some people it’s going on a socially distanced walk together.

How do you know if someone if safe to date?

If you fashion it around the conversation of safe sex – you’re supposed to ask: when was the last time they were tested, how many partners they’re currently engaging with and ask them about their lifestyle to see if they would be a good fit intimacy-wise…now it’s the same thing with a Covid conversation – when were you tested last, your opinions on social distancing, masker or anti-masker.  So what “safe” is, is really dependent on what your values are around the pandemic and there’s a big gap in how people view the pandemic so you really need to ask the questions.

Could pandemic dating be beneficial to some? 

The culture before was very libertine and several dates a week and there was a sense of interchangeability amongst partners. Now, you’re not meeting new people and if you do meet new people, you probably have to do so much prep work before so you’re spending more time trying to get to know people and meet the right person versus trying to meet up with as many people as possible. The people who didn’t enjoy the fast paced dating culture would now actually benefit from pandemic dating