Virtual Dating and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Motives, Predictors, and Outcomes

Authors

  • Luke Youngvorst University of Idaho
  • Thao Pham University of Idaho

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17161/hct.v3i1.16722

Keywords:

Virtual Dating, COVID-19, Coronavirus Pandemic, Sex Differences, Age Differences, Sexual Orientation, Vaccination Status, Uses & Gratifications Theory, Loneliness, Communication Technologies

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic altered myriad aspects of social and cultural life, with impacts continuing to ripple across the globe. The present study provides empirical insight into virtual dating following the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring motives (i.e., gratifications), predictors (i.e., age; sex; sexual orientation; living situation; vaccination status), and outcomes (i.e., loneliness). Participants (N = 393) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in March 2021, approximately one year after initial shelter-in-place and lockdown orders went into effect. Results revealed that demographic and situational factors were significantly related to virtual dating motives. Additionally, several virtual dating motives were significantly associated with loneliness. Implications are discussed regarding the landscape of virtual dating following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Published

2023-01-11

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023)

Section

Original Empirical Research

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Luke Youngvorst, Thao Pham

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

All articles in Human Communication & Technology are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.   Copyright is held by the author.

How to Cite

Youngvorst, L., & Pham, T. (2023). Virtual Dating and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Motives, Predictors, and Outcomes. Human Communication & Technology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.17161/hct.v3i1.16722