If there’s one thing the pandemic hasn’t made any easier, it’s meeting romantic prospects. Between fears of spreading the virus and the compulsorily virtual landscape we’re forced to navigate, it’s not easy squeezing love into the mix.
It’s not just the pandemic zoomers have to blame for our loveless woes. Recent studies and surveys available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that on average, Generation Z might be one of the more sexually inactive generations, even though the floor is open for discussion on the matter.
Columnists and opinion writers have all kinds of speculations on the causes of our loveless plights, but not many are able to offer up any solutions.
What are we to do? Are zoomers really doomed to a loveless fate?
Writer Treena Orchard of Phys.org says the shifting attitudes toward sex, sexuality and “hookup culture” may skew how some respondents answer survey questions. For example, some participants make clear distinctions between what constitutes hooking up, “seeing someone” and dating, with increasing levels of intensity. Other factors, such as financial constraints and social pressures, made respondents feel limited in how far they feel comfortable taking the next step with a relationship.
No matter what the label is, the important thing is to do what is best for you. If a casual hookup is what you need, then go for it — as long as the other party knows it for what it is. If you’re looking for love, best of luck. Happily single where your only joy of Valentine’s Day is buying half-off chocolate the day after? That’s perfectly fine. We aren’t here to judge.
Generation Z is breaking societal standards set before them. No longer are women being told they have to be married and homemakers. No longer are men being told they have to be the primary source of income for a family. Times have evolved enough to give people a choice in their lives, and that freedom should be free of judgment.
Just because what you choose to do is different from what someone else may do does not mean that one method is right or wrong.
However you’re spending Valentine’s Day, we hope you have a happy one!
