At the beginning of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, the transition of many companies to a remote work format made complete sense. More than two years have passed since then, effective vaccines have been developed against the coronavirus, the epidemic (albeit slowly) is becoming a thing of the past, and life is getting better. Yet despite this, most companies still prefer to maintain their staff remotely. In many countries, only 25-30% of companies have fully returned to the office. The rest either use a hybrid format or are in no hurry to return to the previous working model.
Business owners are easy to understand. There are many reasons why the remote format remains the preferred one:
- There are risks that waves of Covid-19 will reappear. And changing the work format again and again, transferring employees either to the office or to a remote location, is inconvenient, unprofitable and results in only unnecessary hassle.
- Many companies recognize that employees who work from home are more efficient and productive. This is most likely due to more comfortable, relaxed home conditions.
- Business owners save an impressive part of their budgets, because they do not need to pay rent and utilities, upgrade office equipment, or many other expenses. Many use the saved funds to increase the employee pay and bonuses, which serves as additional motivation.
It would seem that in remote working, as well as education, we see only pluses. But it is not all positive. It also has its downsides. Some of them are quite significant.
How Covid-19 destroyed social bonds and prevented the creation of new ones
Sociological surveys are conducted around the world on a regular basis. One of these surveys is designed to annually determine how many people feel lonely. In 2016 in the EU countries, only 12% of respondents said that they suffered from loneliness. But during the pandemic, that figure more than doubled to 25%. Just imagine, every fourth person felt lonely!
The problem is not only that the number of lonely people is growing, but also that it is becoming difficult to fight this loneliness. While in previous years you could freely go to a nightclub or restaurant, make a new acquaintance and establish new social connections, now it is much harder. People have become even more wary of new acquaintances. Many simply do not want to put their health at risk.
If we continue working remotely, the formation of new social ties will stay completely paused. Even where companies do not transfer the majority of the staff to work from home.
Before the pandemic, the statistics were as follows:
- 12% of men admitted that dating at work is one of the most promising avenues for them.
- 17% of women agreed with this statement and also called dating at work useful.
The coronavirus has changed everything. Even if you are loyal to dating in the workplace, there are almost no opportunities for this. Most modern companies have significantly reduced their hiring rate. Many choose to hire remote workers to save money. So the chances of at least slightly expanding your circle of friends, making new friends, and even more so finding a soulmate at work, are reduced to zero.
Of course, there are exceptions. In Japan, for example, more than 800 companies have signed up for the Aill goen app, which is designed to help employees make new and promising acquaintances. But this is still just an exception. Sadly, most modern companies do not care how their employees build social connections. However, this does not mean that you need to give up and suffer from loneliness in the expectation that something will change over time. 2022 is the perfect year to pull yourself together and take action!
Looking for ways to date, communicate and find love in 2022
If, after all of the above, you thought that dating offline is now completely impossible, this is not so. It’s just a little more difficult than before. But there are plenty of options left:
- Try to attend events with friends more often in order to make new acquaintances in a common company.
- Go on speed dates if you are interested in this format of dating.
- Try to spend more time offline, attend events, sign up for hobby groups and clubs, etc.
If dating in the real world still causes difficulties and does not give the desired results, it’s time to use the full power of the Internet. The most obvious way is to register on a dating site. The choice of sites is simply huge: Tinder, Badoo, Match, OkCupid, Bumble and others. According to analysts, today there are about 8,000 dating sites in the world. And this number continues to increase, because demand creates supply.
Unfortunately, the classic format of online dating is not without disadvantages. If it does not suit you and give the desired results, we recommend that you look for an alternative. There are lots of options:
#1 Social media. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter — any of these social networks can serve as a great platform for you to find new friends and even a soulmate. Yes, now people are not as active on social networks as they were in the early 2000s, but this should not stop you.
#2 Chat roulettes. These are sites and apps that connect random users via video connection (or text chat). Chat partners are selected completely randomly. But some sites allow you to use basic search settings: gender, language, location, list of interests, etc. Among the most interesting and promising video chat roulettes we can name Camsurf, Tinychat or https://coomeet.com/chatroulette. Keep in mind that each chat roulette has its own features and will not be universal for everyone. We recommend trying a few different ones to find the best one for you.
#3 Themed forums and more. Any online sites that have interest groups are potentially good platforms for finding like-minded people. Here it will be easier for you to find people with the same interests, discuss common topics, prove yourself as an interesting chat partner and learn a lot of new things.
By and large, you can get acquainted and communicate on the Internet wherever there is at least a primitive chat feature or text comments. Any restrictions exist only in your head. Try to give yourself more freedom and discover new communication formats. And will it be a dating site, video chat roulette or a small city forum for two dozen participants — this is not so important.
Learn to date successfully in our new reality
We live in a new reality, that’s true. And it’s naive to believe that in the near future the world will again be the same as it was before the pandemic. But this is actually not what we need. After all, the new reality in many aspects turned out to be even better than the old one!
It has become much easier for us to get acquainted and communicate on the Internet. Working and studying from home is now not only more convenient, but also more efficient. And new social ties in the current realities sometimes turn out to be even stronger than the previous ones.
Therefore, we are convinced that life at a distance is our new normal. And as long as you don’t close yourself off from the outside world, you’ll learn that you can find the positive in any changes. We’re sure you’ll make it work for you!
