In this solo presentation, Dr. Jameca Cooper explores why individuals might choose to pursue romantic relationships during the COVID‑19 pandemic and how they can do so safely. She outlines four primary motivations: (1) timing and age‑related desire for long‑term commitment, (2) heightened loneliness from remote work and isolation, (3) a renewed awareness of mortality and shortened timelines prompting thoughts of family planning, and (4) increased free time due to reduced commuting and meetings. Cooper then reviews practical avenues for meeting potential partners in 2021, emphasizing online dating platforms, speed‑dating events, and personal introductions from friends or family. The core of the talk focuses on safety considerations, including the format of socially distant dates, mask usage, vaccine requirements, assessing a partner’s COVID‑related behavior, and the dual need for both STD and COVID testing before sexual intimacy. She concludes by inviting viewers to seek further tips and to subscribe to her channel.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper, and today we're talking about dating during the pandemic. So for many of you, pre-COVID, you were already thinking, hey, I need to be out here dating. I need to meet someone. I need to meet someone to spend time with. I need to meet someone to spend the rest of my life with. Well, it's been very challenging in the past 12 months, but there's still some people out there that want to focus this time on meeting the right person. So first, let's talk about why you would even want to date at all during the pandemic. So one of the first reasons is timing. In other words, if you are a woman or a man and you feel that you're getting older and it's a good time for you to start start to think about settling down and being in a long-term committed relationship, then this could be the time of your life, whether it's COVID or not, that you feel like based on your age you need to be looking for that person. So timing could be a big reason why for you, you think it's the right time to spend some time to find that person and to meet that person. Another reason why people could feel like this is a great time to meet someone is that they're lonelier during the pandemic. If you're working from home and living alone, then I can definitely see why you feel that this is a great time for you to meet someone. COVID-19 and socially distanced restrictions have caused us all to feel a bit more isolated. So this could be the thing that contributes to any person feeling like, "I need to meet someone because I need to have someone to spend more time with." Another factor that could contribute to why a person would want to date during COVID-19 is the timing and the life experiences that they have suffered. Many of you, many of us have suffered by losing loved ones due to COVID-19, and if you're like me, you're sitting back thinking that, you know what, every day is really not promised to you. You really don't know how long you're going to be here, and so maybe Prior to COVID, you thought, "I'll put off having kids for the next 10 years," and now you realize that life can be pretty short. And so this may make you think that this is a great time to start to think about family planning or to start thinking about settling down. One of the other things that could contribute to people who would want to find a mate during the pandemic would be free time. So now if you're working from home, you might have more time on your hands because maybe you used to have a 1-hour commute, um, to and from work every day and you don't have that now. That could automatically give you more time. Or now if you don't have all the meetings or other, um, meetings, resources, obligations that you would have to attend to, now that could automatically give you more time. So you would want to focus that time on finding someone new in your life. Let's talk about how you would even meet someone during a pandemic. Of course, there are your standard ways. Again, they're standard now in 2021. They were not standard 20 years ago, but online dating is a really appropriate option for those who are looking for dating prospects. It can really help you find someone more than likely in an effective amount of time. Definitely much easier than just going out in public and expecting to meet people that way, especially during a pandemic. So online dating will be an option. I've even heard of people who've engaged in speed dating. Or then you have the old tried-and-true ways of asking your friends and your family to introduce you to appropriate prospects, um, people that they know. This has worked for many, many years, and it could definitely work for anyone interested in dating right now. Let's talk about some of the questions that will come up for you if you're interested in dating during a pandemic. Questions like, would this be a socially distant date, and if so, how would that work? Would you expect to sit at a table really, really far away from each other, or would you expect to go out in a public place like a park and experience the date that way? So what about masks? Would you expect to wear masks during your date the whole time, or would you only expect to begin the date with the mask on and then take the mask off as the date progresses? What about vaccines? This could be a requirement for those of you who are interested in dating. In other words, you could tell the person that you intend to meet that you have a requirement that they be vaccinated with both shots or one shot if it's Johnson Johnson, in order for you guys to meet in person. That would be a reasonable expectation at a time like this. We also have to think about risks that would be involved in dating during the pandemic, and one of the big risks would be what is the other person's COVID behavior? In other words, where are they going? How many people are they around? How many people have they been exposed to? Do they consistently put themselves in places where they are around more than 30 people at a time? If so, you would expect that this person would definitely have higher risk of obtaining COVID-19 and possibly other things that we have to think about as well. You would expect that this person would have higher risk of exposure to COVID-19. Another thing that you would definitely have to consider at a time like this would be testing. So prior to COVID-19, if I had said dating and testing, you would have automatically assumed that I mean STD testing, but right now you have to really think about both. So one, if you plan to engage in sexual encounters with this person, that yes, you would expect that they would have had the necessary STD test, but now we also have to expect and require that they've also been tested for COVID-19. So think about all the different risks that we've just covered, the questions that you have to consider, how you would meet this person, and again, all the way back to the reasons why you would even be interested in dating during the pandemic. So today we've covered all of the different reasons and questions involved in dating during the pandemic. If you're interested in more tips about dating during the pandemic, please tune in and please subscribe.
