The Student Experience with Dating within the COVID-19 Pandemic Dating Apps, Isolation and Blurred Lines

Abstract

When the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic was declared in the UK in March 2020, I, like many others, turned to Tinder and began having conversations with strangers , whilst confined to the four walls of my bedroom, as emotions of isolation, and anxiety grew nationally (YoungMinds, 2021). As restrictions eased, I forgot I had the app, but come September, with Covid-19 guidelines tightening again when I returned to university, I found myself turning to Tinder, where I met my boyfriend. My personal experience with dating. This made me reflect about the ways in which university students have been dating within the pandemic, inspiring me to have conversations with my peers. The main topics that arose was how to define dating, with the distinction between dating and a relationship, and why people were turning to dating apps, when Burton and Baym claim that the people are unable to make real connections with others online, viewing profiles as personas (Baym, 2015; Burton, 2020). We also discussed the emotional impact of the pandemic towards attitudes of dating, the timing of relationships changing, and finally what it was actually like to go on dates throughout the pandemic.