Picture this, you’ve matched with someone you find really attractive, you’ve messaged and now it’s time to meet – but there’s a global pandemic happening. What do you do in that situation? Well it’s one that we never would have imagined living through, but you can still date whilst adhering to social distancing rules, and in this post I want to tell you how you can do it.
It’s safe to say that you can’t cram yourself into a corner of a restaurant or meet up at a bar, but there are still ways to form a connection without actually being physical with each other.
There’s a huge group of online daters who are trying to go about their lives, and several months into the pandemic, people are still struggling with working from home, let alone how to look for love and build a relationship with someone through a screen and not actually meeting them.
According to data from OkCupid, daters sent more than 35 million intro messages in March, which is about 4 million more than in the same time frame last year. More than 90% of its users say they’re dating virtually. There’s also been a 5% increase in folks looking for long-term relationships and a 20% decrease in those looking for hookups.
Here are a few ideas of things to do together whilst socially distancing:
Solve a virtual escape room
You could see how well you solve problems together by trying a virtual escape room. If you haven’t already tried one, you are put in a room trying to follow clues, usually involving a fictional situation, in a limited amount of time.
Have a movie night
There are some plugins and extensions, such as Netflix Party, which allow you to sync up both of your Netflix viewings and it also has a chat along the side – so you can discuss what you think of the film while watching it. Although Netflix Party only supports text chat, if you wanted to talk on the phone, you could use a platform such as Discord while you watch. It is a different take on a Netflix and Chill, but you’ll have to make do for now! OkCupid had more than 30,000 respondents indicate that watching a movie or TV show together is their ideal virtual date. This would also make a great date for those in a long distance relationship. If you are looking for a Cheshire Dating Site or are after dating Cheshire singles, there are plenty of great socially distanced dates you can do.

Play an online game together
There are plenty of options for games to play together online, particularly if one or both of you play video games already. There’s a huge list of games that are great for quarantine, ranging from Animal Crossing to Table Top Simulator if you’re into board games, which you could screen-share from one device.
Or if you wanted you could go old school with classic games
If you aren’t into video games such as Animal Crossing, you can resort to easy games and puzzles. All you need is a pen and a paper, and you can let your imaginations wander. You could play Monopoly together, or even do a crossword, but there are plenty of ways to bond whilst staying socially distanced.