Quarantine and Chill? How Dating Life at UMD Has Changed During a Pandemic

Since the Coronavirus pandemic arose back in early March, University of Minnesota Duluth students have seen a drastic change in almost every aspect of their lives.

The classes they used to have on campus have been moved online, people they used to see everyday have become strangers and weekend gatherings they used to attend are now few and far between. This now begs the question, how has the practice of social distancing and COVID-19 impacted the dating life among UMD students?

I talked to several UMD students about this new phenomenon and found that students who are single have had a harder time meeting and interacting with new people.

“It has been a lot more difficult to interact with girls [this year] since there have been a lot less social events. So when the opportunity comes around you have to take advantage of it,” said sophomore Mason Dietel.

Dietel went on to say that Zoom is one of the only places that you see and meet new people, but made it very clear that there is a big difference in approaching someone in person and “sliding in” someone’s Zoom private messages.

“I feel like it’s a little more creepy to instant message a girl on zoom because that’s more of a classroom environment… you’re there to learn,” Dietel said.

Another concern that some students said they had was even if they met someone, there is still a fear of physically meeting up with a person because of COVID-19.

“I am really worried about meeting someone and them giving me COVID-19 and me bringing it to work. So that’s a big reason why I don’t try to meet people… I’m trying to be responsible about all of this and put my dating life as the least of my priorities,” said junior Grace Ellingworth.

Some students on the other hand are a little less hesitant to meet up with new people.

Junior Kyle Folska said, “If someone invited me to a party of like 50 people, I would say no, but if I’m just meeting up with a couple of people then I wouldn’t care.”

Now despite the struggles of the singles, some of the students who are coupled up at UMD have actually had some good things to say about their situation during this pandemic.

Junior Cole Fechner had nothing but positive things to say about his relationship.

“Personally our relationship got stronger. I mean when quarantine had started, we had been dating for five months or so, and we were actually able to live together for full weeks at a time… it brought us together rather than put a strain on us,” Fechner said.

Senior Jojo Sellwood had similar thoughts about her relationship, saying “We got so much quality time together, it felt like we were living together.”

“It really solidified things and made me confident that we could move in together… adjusting back to real life was the hard part because it was weird to go back to not seeing each other super often,” said Sellwood.

UMD is just one of thousands of colleges in the United States where students are having their social and dating lives completely altered. JaVontae Kruger, who attends Kennesaw State just outside Atlanta, Georgia, gave some insight to how things have changed for him.

When asked about his strategy for approaching girls and whether it had changed at all during this pandemic, he simply said, “same approach, better results.”

When asked what his approach was he said, “no comment.”