virtual dating

Around the country, people are going on dates — virus be damned. Last Sunday, March 29, there were more swipes on Tinder than any day in the app’s history: 3 billion worldwide. Since mid-March, messages on Tinder and Bumble are also up. Conversations, meanwhile, are lasting longer, perhaps because swipers have basically zero chance of meeting in person. In the absence of physical contact, Covid-19 is enabling new forms of connection. Enter the virtual date, and the virtual hook-up. The pandemic is shifting IRL relationships, too. Calvin Kasulke recently spoke to us about his article for Vice.com about queer people finding love during isolation — with their roommates. “A shocking amount of people live with people that they have secretly been in love with for a very long time.” Will the virus inevitably pull us apart? Or could it also spark new relationships?