Meeting a dating partner online has become an increasingly common thing in the 21st century with apps like Tinder, Bumble and Match.com having more than two million users.

In a world where meeting someone is as simple as swiping right, why is it still so hard to date? 

According to the Pew Research Center, around 47% of Americans say it’s “harder” to date now. Compared to 10 years ago, dating is now a virtual connection you make with a complete stranger that might eventually lead to a first date. 

So why in 2021 is it so hard to make that connection? Is it that the new societal standard is to snapchat consistently, until you eventually get the maybe okay-ish first date? Or is it simply because the idea of “romance” is a dying notion? Or is it because some people are more in love with the notion of romance than using it towards making that connection?

Romance, a concept I fantasized about so much about because of romance movies and rom-coms. You know the feel-good movies where the guy shows his affection to an emotionally unavailable girl and they lived happily ever after. For me these movies were La La Land, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dirty Dancing and the Moulin Rouge. All which gave me such an unrealistic idea that love happens when you least expect it. 

This theory has led me to believing that I will wake up one morning and my charming and well-respected guy will just show up. And we will sing and dance and he will be completely silly and I will fall hopelessly in love. 

Well, what a load of crock. This is a day where if I put myself out there the “old fashioned” way I won’t find someone. Yet if I go and apply myself to the online dating world, I will get nothing but people just looking for hookups. What ever happened to the concept of going steady or just going to dinner at a nice restaurant? Am I simply outdated or are my notions outdated?

So how do I get there, on the other side of single, how do I put myself out there in the dating world? We are less than a week away from Valentine’s day and all I have planned for it is buying myself a heart-shaped pizza, eating all the chocolate I can find and watching a LOT of romance movies. 

It honestly sounds like a perfect night – if I was not spending it alone. 

 “Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14 and is widely considered the most romantic holiday of the year. In today’s world, it is a celebration of love: both romantic love between partners, and platonic love between friends and family,” according to Statista Research Department. 

 In a world with roughly 7.7 billion people, where is my person and when will he come? 

That question that may never be answered but here is to hoping.