<p>With governments clamping down on social interactions to contain the <a href="http://[https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_blank">coronavirus</a> spread, dating sites are discouraging dates and asking users to get to know each other virtually instead.</p>.<p>"We don't know who needs to hear this, but now is NOT the time to go out with your date to a bar," leading match-maker OkCupid tweeted on Monday.</p>.<p>"FaceTime, Skype, call, text, call, message on our app.... all very romantic right now," it added.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/coronavirus-updates-live-four-dead-in-china-hotel-collapse-quater-of-italy-population-put-under-lockdown-799686.html#1" target="_blank">Track live updates on the coronavirus here</a></p>.<p>Dating sites contacted by AFP refused to divulge their traffic since COVID-19 starting shutting down US cities this week but it appears their usage is far from slowing.</p>.<p>Even if some academics would like them to suspend their activities entirely.</p>.<p>"It's time to shut down Tinder and all online dating services," tweeted US writer Matt Stoller.</p>.<p>"No more internet-enabled interactions among random people until the #coronavirus crisis has passed," he added.</p>.<p>Joking about the coronavirus has become popular on dating sites, although not necessarily effective at endearing matches to each other.</p>.<p>"If someone seems like they're not taking the crisis seriously or they're making fun of it for me personally that's a turnoff," said comedian and author Lane Moore.</p>.<p>Also Read: <a href="www.deccanherald.com/business/technology/facebook-scrambles-as-use-soars-in-time-of-isolation-815245.html" target="_blank">Facebook scrambles as use soars in time of isolation</a></p>.<p>She helped created the show "Tinder Live," in which she interacts with matches in real time, and thinks coronavirus could be an "opportunity" for people to bond.</p>.<p>"I'm talking to a guy right now who I met on Tinder Live and we're both talking about how this coronavirus COVID-19 stuff is impacting our lives so that can be a good way to know somebody," she said.</p>.<p>Moore, from New York, says many of the men she meets on Tinder want to cut the conversation short and jump straight to meeting in the flesh.</p>.<p>She thinks it's a good thing that now men are being forced to chat more first.</p>.<p>"That's something that women have always wanted because it's an opportunity to meet someone you like the first time but also try to make sure that they're safe," Moore explained.</p>.<p>The dating site Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) is proposing several different ideas for remote interactions, including an online video game date.</p>.<p>"This is going to be important for us to think outside the box in crazy times like this," said CEO Dawoon Kang.</p>.<p>CMB is also organizing an online group discussion, which it has never done before.</p>.<p>Yale University student Ileana Valdez and five friends spent just a few hours setting up a dating site for students whose classes have been canceled and campuses are deserted.</p>.<p>The site, OKZoomer, a nod to the popular expression "Ok boomer" which millennials use to refer to older people, picked up 6,500 users in less than a week, according to Valdez.</p>.<p>"Social distancing allows us to focus on conversations and building up existing and new relationships," the computer science student told AFP via email.</p>.<p>She feels that the big dating apps are focused on "hookups," and argues that OKZoomer sets the ground for "meaningful relationships."</p>.<p>For example OKZoomer's algorithm does not prioritize proximity, unlike most major dating sites.</p>.<p>Other sites are emerging too, such as "Quarantine Together," whose slogan is "Get close even when you can't be close."</p>.<p>Moore, the comedian, isn't convinced that the new coronavirus will spark a dating revolution though.</p>.<p>"I can imagine that once all of this settles down the men who don't really want to be having a conversation will probably go back to one-word answers."</p>
<p>With governments clamping down on social interactions to contain the <a href="http://[https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_blank">coronavirus</a> spread, dating sites are discouraging dates and asking users to get to know each other virtually instead.</p>.<p>"We don't know who needs to hear this, but now is NOT the time to go out with your date to a bar," leading match-maker OkCupid tweeted on Monday.</p>.<p>"FaceTime, Skype, call, text, call, message on our app.... all very romantic right now," it added.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/coronavirus-updates-live-four-dead-in-china-hotel-collapse-quater-of-italy-population-put-under-lockdown-799686.html#1" target="_blank">Track live updates on the coronavirus here</a></p>.<p>Dating sites contacted by AFP refused to divulge their traffic since COVID-19 starting shutting down US cities this week but it appears their usage is far from slowing.</p>.<p>Even if some academics would like them to suspend their activities entirely.</p>.<p>"It's time to shut down Tinder and all online dating services," tweeted US writer Matt Stoller.</p>.<p>"No more internet-enabled interactions among random people until the #coronavirus crisis has passed," he added.</p>.<p>Joking about the coronavirus has become popular on dating sites, although not necessarily effective at endearing matches to each other.</p>.<p>"If someone seems like they're not taking the crisis seriously or they're making fun of it for me personally that's a turnoff," said comedian and author Lane Moore.</p>.<p>Also Read: <a href="www.deccanherald.com/business/technology/facebook-scrambles-as-use-soars-in-time-of-isolation-815245.html" target="_blank">Facebook scrambles as use soars in time of isolation</a></p>.<p>She helped created the show "Tinder Live," in which she interacts with matches in real time, and thinks coronavirus could be an "opportunity" for people to bond.</p>.<p>"I'm talking to a guy right now who I met on Tinder Live and we're both talking about how this coronavirus COVID-19 stuff is impacting our lives so that can be a good way to know somebody," she said.</p>.<p>Moore, from New York, says many of the men she meets on Tinder want to cut the conversation short and jump straight to meeting in the flesh.</p>.<p>She thinks it's a good thing that now men are being forced to chat more first.</p>.<p>"That's something that women have always wanted because it's an opportunity to meet someone you like the first time but also try to make sure that they're safe," Moore explained.</p>.<p>The dating site Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) is proposing several different ideas for remote interactions, including an online video game date.</p>.<p>"This is going to be important for us to think outside the box in crazy times like this," said CEO Dawoon Kang.</p>.<p>CMB is also organizing an online group discussion, which it has never done before.</p>.<p>Yale University student Ileana Valdez and five friends spent just a few hours setting up a dating site for students whose classes have been canceled and campuses are deserted.</p>.<p>The site, OKZoomer, a nod to the popular expression "Ok boomer" which millennials use to refer to older people, picked up 6,500 users in less than a week, according to Valdez.</p>.<p>"Social distancing allows us to focus on conversations and building up existing and new relationships," the computer science student told AFP via email.</p>.<p>She feels that the big dating apps are focused on "hookups," and argues that OKZoomer sets the ground for "meaningful relationships."</p>.<p>For example OKZoomer's algorithm does not prioritize proximity, unlike most major dating sites.</p>.<p>Other sites are emerging too, such as "Quarantine Together," whose slogan is "Get close even when you can't be close."</p>.<p>Moore, the comedian, isn't convinced that the new coronavirus will spark a dating revolution though.</p>.<p>"I can imagine that once all of this settles down the men who don't really want to be having a conversation will probably go back to one-word answers."</p>