The Covid-19 pandemic has forced some countries to implement lockdown. This has hindered many people from going out since they are afraid they might get infected by the virus. At the same time, the pandemic has sped up the utilisation of technological advancement, mainly in communication. Thus, the intensity of people using video communication, such as Zoom, has increased, including in the world of dating. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, people have opted to do video dating rather than to meet in person. So, what is video dating exactly? Let’s start from the beginning.
Originally, video dating allows users to communicate with each other by means of video by exchanging pre-recorded cassettes. Video dating started to gain popularity in the 1980s. During that time, people sat in front of the green screen or colourful background and “sold” themselves in the hope to attract people. Then, the tape was circulated to other people to find possible matches in dating preferences. Even though it was very popular, in fact, it was awkward as people who wish to find their dates need to be shameless if they want to find a potential love interest.
Unlike in the past, there are many ways to do video dating today. People can find their potential dates whether from friends and family references or from dating websites and apps, such as match.com and Tinder. Once they find the right person, they will go on video dates via Zoom, Skype, or any other video over internet protocol platforms. With this kind of method, people will find their preferences easily.
As video dating is widely used during the Covid-19 pandemic, it indeed gives advantages to those who wish to find a date and get to know each other. Video dating can save more time and money compared to going out on an actual date. According to Lunch Actually (2020), 65% of men and 57% of women have tried video dating, which they found to be an interesting experience. For most women, video dating can help them to filter their desired men easily. In addition, video dating can also provide an opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level (Scoda cited in Tong 2020). With video dating, they can take everything slow and have more time to talk with each other without any distraction.
Furthermore, it is possible that some people might stick to this new way of dating after the pandemic ends. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist who has studied 20 years of MRI scans, stated that the popularity of video dating during the Covid-19 pandemic has given way to a new stage of courtship (Sigalos 2020). This means that people will take a longer time of the courtship process. With a longer courtship process, relationships tend to be more stable. Hence, people can take more time to decide whether their relationship should move to the next stage or not.
Despite its efficiency, video dating is not for everyone. This is because virtual identity and appearance in the video call might differ from the physical identity and appearance since video communication gives more freedom for people to change their name and appearance or use different filters before they join the video meeting. Hence, this type of practice could lead to disappointment for video daters upon meeting their dates in person.
Unfortunately, video communication is not only used to start a relationship, but also to end a relationship. Recently, there is a new phenomenon of ending a relationship through a video communication platform, called Zumping. Zumping is a word that is derived from the combination of two words, Zoom and dumping, meaning that people broke up through video communication platforms, mainly Zoom. It was first popularised by Julia Moser, a writer from Los Angeles who shared her stories on Twitter about being dumped by her boyfriend of two months. Many people replied to her tweet and shared the same story, such as a woman who was divorced by her husband through Facebook.
In conclusion, video dating might be a new trend for dating during social distancing. As the pandemic will not be over in the near future, the popularity of video dating may continue to increase. What do you think of video dating? Have any of you tried video dating? Share and comment below.
