The concept of online dating entered our lives and minds not too long ago, and yes, to be honest, there are many who are grateful for that. In earlier times, online dating included people swiping left/right or liking each other’s profiles and pictures which led to matched profiles flirting and texting all the time. The next moment you know, a date in a bar or cafe was fixed. It all seemed too realistic and good-to-be true! Until the current pandemic happened.
Did a huge splash of disappointment just washed over you? We all are stuck in our homes trying to maintain social distancing and trying to avoid the spread of the deadly virus. While people have still started stepping out, most of us are still cooped up in our houses. It’s become the daily norm now.
Youngsters who enjoyed their physical dates and time with friends have started looking for new ways to entertain themselves on social media. The usage of popular apps like Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter has radically increased during the quarantine period. Studies have even shown that people’s screen time on their gadgets has increased considerably. Well, who can deny the need to be socially active during quarantine virtually?
What’s most interesting is that people have changed their game on online dating sites.
With lots of time to spare at home, youngsters and youths have resorted to virtual dates with each other over their laptop or phone screen. They have been using imaginative ways to keep the spark alive, which is actually praise-worthy. Creativity seems to take the top spot right now!
What’s going wrong is that these people have started pretending. With all of us locked in our homes because of compulsory restrictions, there lies no need for any physical dates. Everything is now completely virtual. We often dress up differently or make ourselves look even more presentable on social media.
It makes us feel validated.
The vast social media platform is filled with people who post such aesthetic, beautiful, cool and such godly pictures that the rest are left wanting to look and be more like others. Of course, aiming to be a better version of yourself is definitely good, but aiming to be like someone else shouldn’t come to your mind.
In this mindless chase, we forget to be ourselves in front of the person we like or love. Even if we match with a stranger on online dating apps, our foremost wish is to like much better, sexier, hotter version of yourself by wearing makeup, or wearing clothes that you usually don’t put on. Getting out of your comfort zone is a plus point, but doing so, only to impress the potential dater is not right. If you think carefully and critically, you’ll find yourself morphing into a completely different person who has different likes, tastes and opinions different from your usual self. Your desire to be accepted as a ‘modern, classy’ individual is more of a want to be able to keep up with people’s changing likes and standards.
Imagine this: if you upload a picture of yourself wearing kurta-pyjama, not many people will want to swipe right. Instead, if you slightly tuck out your shirt and wear cropped jeans with classic vans, you’re an immediate hottie. The catch is just this, that you’re more comfortable in kurta-pyjama instead of those cropped jeans. But, you’re resorting to it so that others validate you as a fashionable, modern person. Of course, this situation is hypothetical. It can be different for everybody.
Pretending is now easier to do so, now that we don’t actually have to show up.
Sitting in our homes and crafting picture angles to make yourself look better is actually possible. Changing your looks and angles can make you seem like a completely different person. Learning to talk about modern interests isn’t difficult at all. Instead, the internet has made it easier. Also, consider this as a metaphor. You’re eating chips, sitting in your room wearing a gross bathrobe and text-flirting with your date. See? It’s not even difficult.
But that’s what. This isn’t healthy at all. Why should we imagine to be a different person in front of others, so as to emerge as their potential interests? Hiding behind our phone screens with a fake facade isn’t really going to help you once the quarantine situation gets over. More than that, it’s going to morally affect you. Low self-esteem, low confidence and insecurity over body image and looks are only some of the problems scratched on the surface. Don’t treat this as an excuse if you don’t like yourself. Even more, you’ll be catfishing or hurting the other person as well. If you like someone, it’s only plausible that they like you back for who you really are. Not the fake person you’re pretending to be.
Dating someone with a fake persona can feel burdensome after some time.
Imagine dating someone who likes the way you put your hair in a really messy bun or how your unfiltered funny pictures get the top humour award. Isn’t that thought exciting yet relieving? Exactly. Stop pretending to be another person during this quarantine period and emerge as the happy, be-yourself soul right now.
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