Au revoir, awkward Tinder date. Bonjour, awkward Zoom date.
That’s the nouveau reality for lonely singles in the age of coronavirus. The pandemic isn’t stopping people from swiping — they’re just doing it more creatively, and from a safe distance.
Let’s be honest: First dates are tough even when you can sit closer than 6 feet away from your match.
Bumble is promoting video chats as virtual icebreakers, and Tinder made its paid Passport feature free for everyone — it lets you swipe around the world to find new connections outside of your sad self-quarantine bubble.
There’s even a new app tailor-made for these times: OKZoomer (golf clap for the name) was created for college students who want to crush on people from a social distance.
…don’t sweat. The… um, New York City government… has you covered. Twitter got hot and bothered over NYC’s guide to safe corona-copulation (TL;DR: when in doubt, rub one out, OR get down with your roommate, but DEFINITELY NO rimming!).
Other options for adventurous types: MIT Tech Review says high-tech sex toys and VR strip clubs are all on the rise. Not to mention corona-fetish content. (We’re not into kink-shaming, but… what???)
Many of them are raising money to support each other — the pandemic has dealt a major blow to their livelihoods.
Some are moving online. But the ones who don’t already have a virtual presence are running into a classic business problem: It’s hard to challenge the well-established incumbents.