*This post was written in collaboration with Senior Suffolk Dating.

Having been single on and off for the majority of the last few years, I feel like an eternal singleton who cannot be taught anything about dating. But the pandemic has turned a lot of what we think we know on it’s head. I mean, who would have believed a year ago that a trip to the supermarket would be a glamourous night out! Realistically, the internet have been nothing short of a God send during the lockdowns, giving people the ability to still get to know each other without the benefit of being able to meet up. Internet dating is the way forward, and there are plenty of ways you can use the internet to “up” your dating game.

Finding a date

The main reason to use internet dating is because you can specify what you are looking for and find someone who is your type in your local area. So you log on and type “dating agency Suffolk” and you’ll get results in and around Suffolk. The majority of good dating sites will let you add in a more specific geo location so that you can find someone REALLY close if that is what you want. Once you have found an appropriate site for your local area and age, you can start working on your profile. Make sure you pick out a great picture as well!

What am I looking for?

Now another great thing about the age of internet dating is that you can be VERY specific about what you want. Say for example you are interested in saving the environment and environment and you want this to be something you share with your date. When you complete an online dating profile you are more or less able to create a “shopping list” of all of the attributes you are looking for in a significant other. This is so much better than meeting a random stranger in a bar or a club and slowly and painfully finding out across a number of boring dates that they do NOT share any interests with you whatsoever.

Having the actual date online

In the UK, we have now been in two lockdowns, and people are speculating it wont be the last. So with the absence of all of the normal date venues, actually having the date online is a good option. You can either set up a Skype or a Zoom call with whoever you met on the Suffolk dating site. Having a virtual first date has a number of pros including:

•  Not wasting money on dinner
• Only needing to dress the top half (you can easily get away with joggers on the bottom half)
• You can end the call with an excuse a lot more easily than you could leave a restaurant or a bar if you don’t click
• You have more time to get to know someone if you do a few Skype or Zoom dates before you meet up in real life