Love in the Age of Corona: What to Do When You Meet People Online?

While for many of us online hangouts and dating was always a possibility, with the lockdown in place, it has become a necessity. This opens a question of what to do when you meet someone online, how to approach it, and if there are any dangers that you should be wary about.

Now, in the age of Corona, we have a case of Catch-22, meaning that you are at risk if someone on the other side is fooling you and if they are not. Regardless, you will need first to determine if your conversation and connection are valid, and then see how you may forward that connection without exposing yourself to a potentially deadly virus.

Thankfully, these issues are resolvable. For the technical side, using premium services from Le VPN will allow you to shield your devices and data. And, for the personal side, a bit of discretion, patience, and cyber hygiene will do a lot to save you from the coof.

Love in the Age of Corona

Long-distance relationships are hard, many would say impossible, and in this case, it may be a long-distance simply living a block from your romantic interest or even partner. If you haven’t organized in time and picked a correct quarantine buddy, you might be at a loss.

There are a few options, though, but some things should be preferential. We will be returning to tradition and looking more towards our friends and acquaintances for solace in these trying times.

Generally, IRL hookups should be off the table. You can still chat up and see who you can meet online, and these relationships can be fulfilling if you are smart about them. As a general rule and a recommendation by the WHO, you should wait about two weeks before meeting anyone. Even this includes only those you have managed to trust enough to know they weren’t fooling around IRL while chatting you up.

Medical Risks

Disclaimer: While this information relies on the official findings by the World Health Organization, you should not be taking medical advice from blogs online or random people from social media. Ask your chosen physician about any symptoms you might have and about the current standards in safe behavior.

While online dating scams and cybersecurity may be similar to all people around the globe, individual health is, well… individual.

But, there is some overlap on how our online life can interact with our offline life, especially when it comes to romance and relationships. Viruses, bacteria, and infection are quite dangerous but are not the only thing that can hurt you when searching to meet people online.

Infection

For some reason, people are acting like Covid-19 is the only infection out there. The current pandemic is just a very dangerous and viral infection, but far from being the only one. You should always keep your health in mind when trying to meet people, and err on the side of caution if need be. And masks are a must-have fashion item of this season!

Heartache

There is no vaccine for heartache, and building immunity will leave some unwanted side effects.

The only preventative measure for this illness is patience. Even if you fall head over heels for someone, you should give yourself some time to process your emotions and see if what you are doing is at least rational, if not really safe.

Give your emotions time to get to know someone online before declaring your undying love and affection. You will save yourself, and won’t scare the person you are talking to.

Physical Danger

While there is an easy solution to assess this issue, few people use it. Facetime with people, have a Skype chat, use Zoom even with their bad security practices if you must just get to know the person on the other side.

It is very easy to trick people with fake pictures and a fake personality, this is even a solid cybersecurity practice, but it is impossible to fake a video call adequately.

Digital Risks

While having your identity stolen isn’t as sinister as a pneumonic failure due to a viral infection, the risks are much more prevalent. Even with a simply using an IP address tracker that is shown by your device, someone can backward hack your entire system.

Having your identity stolen isn’t just someone posing as you online, but you may also lose your health insurance, social security, as well as access to your bank account.

Identity & Data Theft Prevention

Protecting yourself is not as hard if you are careful about what type of information your transmit. And, with a couple of tools and a couple of tricks, you can ensure your safety.

Primarily, make sure that all of your devices, preferably your router as well, are connected to a VPN. To see if you have changed your locations, you can use my IP location service to find out what is your new IP address. For regular purposes, it doesn’t need to be far, just not your house.

Next, use a burnable email that is different from your work and private emails that you use for official correspondence. This way, companies like Zoom or Facebook won’t be able to track your chats as well.

Finally, make your conversations personal about feelings, but not about physical information. The person on the other side may know your taste in music and where you wish you could travel now, but not the name of your middle school teacher.

Conclusion

You don’t need to be afraid to meet people online, especially not during a pandemic where emotional closeness is needed to offset social distancing. But you should take precautions.

First of all, take medical and safety precautions if you want to meet someone IRL. Give yourself a bit of time to get to know them and give hookup culture a bit of a rest. Video chatting might be enough for now.

Next, make sure that all of your devices are protected because you are spending more time online. Premium providers like Le VPN will protect your IP address and encrypt your data, and a bit of cyber hygiene will do the rest.

Once all of this is over, we’ll all be having a party, so protect yourself for that moment!