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By now the story of the New York photographer who, in full confinement, flirted with a neighbor when dancing on the roof of his building is already well known. For those who have not heard of it, here is a summary: after observing it in the purest style The indiscreet windowwith the telephoto lens of his camera, he decided to send her a drone to follow her like a flycatcher, while she moved the skeleton. Surprisingly, the boy's tactic paid off, and since you can still go outside in the United States, they had their first date. Of course, respecting the distances: he stood at his door tucked inside a large transparent plastic ball. Without a doubt, a spectacle in which there was no shortage of a police stop to - nothing more and nothing less - ask them for a photo. Of course everything was recorded and told to the world through his Twitter account. Like this young man, there are many people who have had to live the quarantine as a single woman, and despite the fact that there are those who have decided to close all the routes to meet someone - "to avoid putting on long teeth," a friend assures me. There are also those who take advantage ofDating apps to have from innocent fooling around to some sex on camera.
This is the case of Sofía (30 years old), who appeared in makeup and groomed to one of the usual video calls on Fridays, to which both she and her friends connect in pajamas from the comfort of the sofa or bed. That day she had an appointment with a boy she had just met on Tinder : "We have arranged to have some wines and talk," he explained before leaving them "planted" by that unknown man. Things did not go well and after half an hour he was back with at least something fresh to contribute to the conversation, which had been revolving for weeks about when and how the measures will begin to be loosened and it will be possible to return to something similar to normality. Although his first virtual encounter in the quarantine was a failure, after that he got a real match . With this he speaks every day and even —as he has confessed to us— the subject has risen in temperature with the camera activated . And it may be that everything remains in the virtual world: "He lives an hour and a half from my house, it is a bit complicated", he assures.
One of the paradoxes of the pandemic is that, on the one hand, borders that no longer existed have been recovered: between countries, between autonomous communities and cities, and even between our houses and the streets. And on the other hand, in the online world they seem to have completely disappeared . At least when it comes to dating apps. The clearest example is the Tinder Passport function , which allows you to meet people from anywhere in the world (before confinement the app only taught candidates who were a certain distance from the user's location). Without this, Sofia probably would not have spent several weeks talking to her date and Twitter would not be revolutionized with #tinderpassport .
In pajamas already crazy
Whether thousands of miles away or just a few kilometers, the key to dating is video calls, which, according to Badoo Marketing Director Pablo Delgado, "are the users' preferred option. We have observed that they have outperformed normal calls and also people seem to prefer them over messages. Also, they are getting longer. " People can spend hours chatting when there is a good connection with the other person. This happened to David (38 years old), who had his first 'video' with Felipe two days after meeting him in this application. They started talking in bed and spent three hours reviewing politics, music and even acquaintances they have in common. And, as if they were in the same room, both ended up "sleeping together" . Upon waking up the next morning, David realized that the video call was still active and that he had Felipe snoring "by his side."
Apparently this level of comfort and complicity has become quite common in confinement dating. "It seems that we have all come to terms with the idea that we spend the day in our pajamas and that other people do too. It seems that we have lost that fear of showing ourselves more naturally, " Delgado explains. It took Arantxa (24 years) to fix what it takes a person to drink a glass. Both she and her date ended up getting somewhat more comfortable and sprawling on the sofa to watch together and discuss various chapters of La Casa de Papel .
Just as watching series together has become a plan for a first date, other activities that we have adopted to make the running of the bulls more entertaining have also made their place in this type of meeting. In the absence of being able to go to a good restaurant, why not cook together and then have dinner? This is what Vanessa (27 years old) and her date did and even took it to the next level: Masterchef- type contest and to see who fits the dish better. In his case it was a Bolognese, but we can choose any recipe, from a wonderful Neapolitan pizza to a simple recipe with preserves at the height of a Michelin star chef. And, of course, there is no lack of good homemade bread as the best bakers in Spain bake it.
And from experimenting in the kitchen to playing a game at some board game in the living room. The Trivial, Delgado tells us, is a great option to have fun or directly dismiss the candidate , as happened to Javier (21 years old), who recognizes that he has no idea of anything but sports. For her part, she was correct. He not only lost the game, but all the points he could have before starting the appointment.
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