The Evolving Behaviour of Daters amidst the Second Wave of Pandemic

The second wave of the pandemic appears to be more scary and deadly. While the nation grapples as the situation is serious, the vaccination drive is in full swing. Amidst all that's happening around, the behaviour of daters is rapidly evolving. Though dating continues uninterrupted, daters' priorities have changed who now have a new set of concerns.

Dating is well and alive! However, there has been much development around how people want to date (real world or virtual), intimacy in the current situation, dating options in the current situation and so on. India’s leading dating platform QuackQuack has shared some key insights into daters' behaviour during uncertain times.

The report reveals users’ opinion on 2 key parameters – dating a person who is not vaccinated and major concerns while dating during present circumstances. The responses are categorised gender-wise, age-wise as well as location wise. The three age groups are 18-20, 21-30 and 31 & above.

80% of people in the age group 31 and above feel inoculation as a prerequisite in their date. Likewise, majority 70% of people in the age group 18-30 consider meeting their date only after getting the jab and wouldn’t risk during the second wave. On the other hand, 30% of people in the age 18-30 wouldn’t necessarily consider vaccination and would take other safety precautions while meeting. In fact, majority of people wouldn’t continue conversation with the person who is vaccine hesitant and would cut off the conversation smoothly. A very few of them would be ok to have a conversation with anti vaccinators considering it as an individual choice.

When asked about the preferences around first date experience, the majority 57% in the age group 18 and above said they want their first date to be virtual as they wouldn’t want to risk it. On the other hand, 43%of  people in the age 18 and above being old school, would want to meet in person by following safety precautions. Surprisingly, majority 61% from smaller cities/towns and 54% people from top cities understand the risk of meeting and prefer their first date to be virtual over meeting in person.

Speaking about the survey report, Mr. Ravi Mittal, Founder & CEO of Quack Quack, said, " In addition to several effects of the second wave of COVID-19, it has had a significant impact on daters as well who are now more concerned than ever. Both males and females want their date to be vaccinated and would not risk on their health during the second wave. Likewise, the survey report has many interesting insights”, he added.

The survey also fetched opinions of daters regarding physical intimacy during the current second wave of the pandemic. The majority 66% youngsters in the age 18-20 and 58% people in the age 21 and above would prefer emotional attachment for now. On the contrary, the remaining 34% in the age 18-20 and 42% of people in the age 21 and above vote for physical intimacy even today. Stating that pandemic or no pandemic, physical intimacy is a must to decide on a partner.

Surprisingly, the majority 57% of people in the age 18-30 are fine dating people from other locations when compared to 43% in the age 18-30. On the contrary majority 57% people in the age 31 and above wouldn’t want to risk travelling as they consider themselves as a weak prey to COVID and choose matches from their location when compared to 43% in the age 31 and above.