Locdating: the dating trend everyone is trying post lockdown

Looking for love in the era of coronavirus? Read on

Words by Chantel Pereira: Dating norms are constantly changing in light of Covid-19. During lockdown, dating was confined to virtual meets from apps, and while post-lockdown offers a taste of freedom (a local pub garden for a restricted amount of time), singles in the UK are still being cautious about how they go about finding love. With this in mind, a new dating trend, ‘locdating’, has been born. Put simply, it’s choosing to date locally due to health and safety concerns amidst the pandemic.

A recent survey conducted by the women-first dating app Bumble found that half of the single people across the UK (48 per cent) are more inclined to date locally, compared to before lockdown.

The ‘locdating’ approach cuts down on the transit time taken to get to and from far away locations which can be unsafe, while still allowing socially-distanced dating. This means that a lot of singles will be hitting up their local haunts for chance love encounters. Interesting.

Lockdown has brought with it a lot of new dating behaviours to get your head around. Whether it’s being dumped over Zoom or embarking on a quarantionship, language learning app Babbel has put together an extensive list of lockdown love lingo here.

We weighed up the pros and cons of the ‘locdating’ dating trend to help you make up your mind about trying it…

Pros

• Safety First. By choosing to date someone who lives within walking distance, you limit your exposure, making it a safe way to get back into the dating game.
• Time-efficient. Dating someone who lives close by leaves more time spent together rather than time spent on the journey getting there. When setting up an account with Bumble you can set a location radius for your profile, which can be as small as one mile. This would allow you to match with people who live nearby, making it easy to walk or cycle to your date.
• With Bumble’s new feature that allows you to declare what kind of date you’re on the lookout for (virtual only, socially-distanced, or socially-distanced with masks), you can skip the awkward phase and jump right into the date.

Cons

• The dating pool might be slim. For some unlucky few, you might have to choose between dating your neighbours or if you’re living in your hometown at the moment, someone you went to school with. But, chin up. You never know who might be just around the corner from you.
• You might not be interested in what’s around you. This may be an issue for those singles who are used to living with the hustle and bustle of the city life and have had to move back to their hometowns due to Covid-19. Dating locally could take the thrill out of the whole experience.

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