JUDY WOODRUFF: Coronavirus has upended life as we know it. But what has it meant for those
trying to date?
Lisa Desjardins has that story.
LISA DESJARDINS: The empty restaurants, theaters, and closed public spaces across the country
are meant to keep people safe and apart. That has made dating, the search for being together,
just strange.
ADITI JUNEJA, New York: Someone said to me, like, after the pandemic, I'd love to cook
you some spicy food. And I was like, what a weird pickup line.
JEREMY WADE, Ohio: You're trying to build that foundation without a lot of the same
tools and interaction that you would normally have.
WOMAN: I had this grand idea that we'd be sending each other letters or something romantic.
(LAUGHTER)
MARIANNE SHAEFFER, Pennsylvania: We have gotten really good at both opening up Netflix or
Amazon Prime, and starting things at the same, and then resyncing them as we go along.
LISA DESJARDINS: As part of our ongoing coverage of life under this pandemic, we asked some
of our viewers to tell us about their experience.
ADITI JUNEJA: I think dating is just, like, always sort of miserable, right, like just
as a general rule.
(LAUGHTER)
LISA DESJARDINS: Aditi Juneja in New York City is looking for a relationship, and has
noticed something different about online dating during the lockdown:
ADITI JUNEJA: I am extremely lazy, so I was very much like, I date in Queens. Like, I'm
not going to Brooklyn. Like, you're crazy. And now there's like someone in Staten Island
I'm talking to, which I'm like, I don't know if we ever meet, but, like, it doesn't matter.
We're not -- no one's going anywhere anyway.
LISA DESJARDINS: Online dating apps like Tinder have temporarily lifted geographic restrictions,
and also pushed users to more phone and video dates to encourage social distancing.
Juneja says the pandemic has perhaps also forced people to slow down.
ADITI JUNEJA: It feels also less like people are racing toward some finish line, where
you're trying to be like, are you the person I'm going to spend my life with? Yes? No?
Get out of my face. Like, it feels more like, I just want some companionship.
JEREMY WADE: I haven't heard anyone say it that way, but that's a perfect analogy.
LISA DESJARDINS: Forty-five-year-old Jeremy Wade in Columbus, Ohio, met someone just as
the shelter-in-place orders began. So how do they build a romance now? Virtually, watching
the same things at the same time.
JEREMY WADE: I thought about potentially, you know, dancing together, so, you know,
putting on the same song and like moving around the room with -- which sounds very awkward
and a little nerdy. But what else are you going to do?
LISA DESJARDINS: Indianapolis paramedic Paul Hess has been trying to keep the momentum
going while apart, too. After 12 years of being single, in November the 56-year-old
finally met someone through Facebook.
PAUL HESS, Indiana: She was everything. She's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny. She's
snarky. She's patient with me. And that's very important when you deal with me.
LISA DESJARDINS: Because of his work treating COVID patients, he says, last month, he realized
that it'd be best to stay away from her and her kids. So now it's just calls and text
messages. That's been hard.
PAUL HESS: You come home just worn out emotionally and physically. And, you know, I have to kiss
the dog. I mean, he's a great dog, don't get me wrong, but it's just not the same.
LISA DESJARDINS: Of course, for couples now quarantining together, challenges can come
from the other direction: suddenly having too much time together.
T.J. GAYMIN, Pennsylvania: Our actual time in the apartment has exponentially increased.
For me, it's like, you know, you didn't change the toilet paper roll.
JOEY VIOLA, Pennsylvania: Oh, I don't. You're right.
LISA DESJARDINS: Joey Viola and T.J. Gaymin have been together for two-and-a-half years
and live in Philadelphia. Despite minor annoyances, they say they have grown stronger through
this.
JOEY VIOLA: Quarantine has been really good for our relationship. It kind of was like
the ultimate test. Like, can we stand each other for this many days and hours, unknowing
-- like, not knowing how long it's going to be, but doing everything together?
And there was just one day. It was a few weeks into it. And I just, like, looked at him.
I was like, I think I'm more in love with you. And I mean that.
T.J. GAYMIN: Not to negate everything that's happened that's been horrible about this pandemic,
but this kind of pause in life has been a really beautiful thing for us.
LISA DESJARDINS: Many echoed that feeling, that, despite all of the frustrations of this
moment, it's given them a chance to catch their breath and decide what they want out
of life and their relationships.
MARIANNE SHAEFFER: It's kind of like a big reset. Everybody is checking out their priorities
and maybe reexamining where they are in life.
ADITI JUNEJA: It's not that people are behaving differently. You are actually getting to see,
like, truer, more vulnerable senses of who people are.
PAUL HESS: If you're in it for a long run, you got to be in it for the long run.
It's stay the course and hope that everything turns out good in the end, and you finally
get to see the people you love again.
LISA DESJARDINS: Hope for seeing the people they love, and, for some, those they are still
falling in love with, despite the pandemic.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins in Washington.