The pandemic may have changed the dating scene forever. It has put many young adults’ love lives on hold. Without enough feelings of love and intimacy during the pandemic, it has potentially made many students feel depressed and lonely.

For young people, it seems to be a challenge to meet prospective suitors. Technology and social media have played a big part in dating during the pandemic since everyone has been in quarantine. Apps such as Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and many more have been an immense help to young people.

“Dating during the pandemic has become very difficult and has brought up a lot of major issues in my opinion,” said UTEP sophomore Angel Segura “People have turned to the use of social media and apps to meet new people and to fill their need of human interaction due to the lack of it during the pandemic. Personally, I know a range of people that during the pandemic have found someone through these apps. These people tend to have virtual dates. Virtual dates have become very common now. I have yet to experience these virtual dates but through family and friends I have seen the impact this pandemic has had in their dating lives.”

New couples that have found success in the dating scene have started doing virtual dates which have become quite popular. These new types of dates can include playing online video games or watching movies and shows through Zoom or other streaming websites.

Many UTEP students have been changing with the times and have adjusted to this new type of dating and have found success in finding a new partner, such as Rebeca Zarate a first-year student majoring in education.

“Dating for me during the pandemic was at first a challenge in the beginning,” Zarate said.“Even though dating was not my biggest priority at the time, I started to feel lonely when the lockdown was first established. Through my loneliness I started creating many online dating profiles in hopes of finding someone. I encountered many failed talking stages at first and because of COVID was not able to go on any in person dates. I was beginning to lose hope, until I met someone who sparked my interests. We went on a first date, taking COVID precautions into consideration. After five months of getting to know each other, we finally made it official.” For some students, instead of a fresh start to a love story, their love story ended amid the pandemic.

Destiny Nava, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry said, “dating during the pandemic has honestly been challenging. I feel that the pandemic played a part in the ending of my last relationship. My boyfriend at the time was working in a doctor’s office during the peak of COVID, and I could barely see him because of all of the precautions he needed to take in order to ensure that we both weren’t infected with COVID .”

The pandemic has been a challenging factor in the lives of people from all levels of society. Everyone can agree that they have felt lonely or unlucky in love at least some point of their life. Quarantine has just made these feelings more relevant, especially for single people.

“During the entirety of 2020, my dating life was nonexistent,” said UTEP mechanical engineering major Derrick Castillo “Since nobody was allowed to leave their house during quarantine, so I couldn’t meet any new people in person. When school came back in person, I thought things would be back to normal, but I was wrong. I feel like everyone lost their social skills after quarantining for so long and now everyone is antisocial. I haven’t had any luck in the dating field yet, but hopefully once people become comfortable with being around people again I will.” Even through the trials and tribulations of the pandemic, love triumphs all. Everyone learned through experiencing COVID how important human connection and interaction is. We know now not to take it for granted and to really appreciate the love we have.

Alyson Rodriguez may be reached at [email protected]; @alyson_rod1127 on Twitter.