It’s no cliché: Online dating is more popular than ever. Off-line, warm-body meetups haven’t been possible for months, causing concerns that loneliness and a lack of physical intimacy can take a major toll on our well-being.
It seems that single people are having none of that. They’re reaching out to online dating in record numbers.
March was a red-letter month for almost every dating site, with Tinder recording over three billion swipes on March 29, and Bumble recording a 26% increase in messages over two weeks in March.
It’s a flourishing industry, with users quickly adapting to the use of technology to circumvent real-life limitations. It’s much easier to FaceTime with a new date than to navigate your way through an inconvenient socially-distanced public date.
Live-cam dating protects us from COVID-19, but is it safe in other aspects?
1 Common sense privacy measures must prevail
It’s simply good practice to separate your personal and professional lives. Use a separate email account and phone number for your dating and social media activities. However, there’s a fine line between telling outright whoppers and protecting yourself by blurring a few personal details.
According to a survey commissioned by Greg Hodge of BeautifulPeople, fifty-three percent of American survey participants have lied on their online dating profiles, so don’t get carried away when you fluff a few details.
Catfishing (creating a false impression with a fake identity on dating sites) is a distasteful practice that could get you kicked off reputable dating sites. Nevertheless, this practice has grown under lockdown rules – with a sinister twist.
The proliferation of user-generated content on porn sites reflects the rising demand for amateur porn. Don’t become a victim of scumbags who cruise the digicam dating scene with the intent of soliciting free porn.
2 Video-chat has become our first-date safe place
We’ve always assumed that face-to-face meetups are the only way to discover if you have real chemistry. That’s only half the story, because virtual dating with video-chat is the next best thing to meeting up face-to-face and can be a blast.
Several online daters have found that digicam dating is a fast (and dare I say, cheap) method to find out if there’s any chemistry at all. Why should you text someone for months, only to find you don’t like the way he giggles at his own jokes?
You’re in command of your personal space. Digicam chat, therefore, provides a comforting feeling of being able to retreat if things don’t go well.
On the other hand, video chat conversations allow the possibility to veer toward steamy virtual interaction.
3 Live-cam dating offers unusual benefits
You’ll save yourself a lot of angst with virtual first-time dates. You’re on home turf, all dressed up, looking good, smelling great, ready for a good time, but with none of the concerns of a warm-body date.
There are no nagging worries about getting home safely. You can leave your drink at the table when you visit the ladies’ room. There won’t be any last-minute panic over a neglected bit of intimate personal grooming.
You can also schedule several dates every week, and there’s no embarrassment when it’s time to settle the bill.
4 There are few limitations on digicam dating activities
You know the drill because you work from home: Use a laptop or other digicam gadget, and pick your favorite chat app. Skype, FaceTime (for Apple users), Zoom, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, WebEx, Facebook. You probably have accounts on all of them. There’s no need for instructions – if you can navigate a live date, you can certainly manage video chat.
You can quickly move beyond the obligatory first quick cup of coffee or glass of wine, and replace a romantic dinner date or movie night with similar live-stream activities:
- A romantic candlelight dinner (order in)
- A home-made dinner (both cook the same dish so you can compare the results. It’s more fun than you think, I promise)
- Netflix and snacks
- Tabletop games (yes, really!)
- Theme Night (with or without pets in attendance)
By the time you finally meet in person, you’ll be comfortable enough with each other to move right along. Or not.
4 If there is chemistry …
In some ways, it’s easier to be yourself due to the slight feeling of distance between you and the “real world”. Paradoxically, that makes intimacy more attainable.
Don’t get sexy too fast. It is important to know who you’re getting intimate with. Video sex is online content that may get shared online. It may not matter to you now, but internet content never dies. If you wouldn’t want your current or future boss to see it, it’s a bad idea to play along.
5 Before you get all steamy
You’re safe, comfortable, wine has been flowing, he has a wicked sense of humor and a disarming smile. Whoa! Hold up, girl!
You should do at least a basic identity check before you get hot and bothered on video cam with a total stranger. It’s not necessary to dig too deep, just look out for obvious discrepancies before you get emotionally invested.
- Internet keyword search: Search variants of his name and last name. By this time, you’ll probably have his telephone number which allows for a highly accurate search.
- If you’ve both integrated your Facebook accounts with the dating app, you’ll have no problem meeting up there. It’s a good idea to check his friend’s list, photos, and tag activity for any obvious red flags.
- Also check Instagram, Twitter, and other known online hang-outs. Social-searcher.com is a niche search engine that specializes in finding social media accounts.
- LinkedIn is a good place to cross-check the details you’ve gathered thus far. It’s a more sober and career-orientated platform, where people generally avoid falsehoods.
6 Don’t hesitate. Investigate
If you get the feeling that something’s off, or if you pick up red flags, use a data aggregator with the ability to collate information from hard-to-reach places on the internet. Nuwber is one of the very few people-search sites that can locate a subject’s social media accounts in addition to the usual address, criminal history, marriage records, and general internet profile. It will spare you the additional work of doing a reverse image search on TinEye or Google to check that his Instagram and Facebook pics are real.
7 Is digicam dating here to stay?
So far, daters have answered with a resounding yes, and online dating sites have confirmed that they believe the trend will continue in post-lock-down.
As for me? I’m going to double down on ID checks before I commit.
