High school students are turning to online platforms such as Snapchat or Instagram to find their perfect match more than any other generation.
Eli Jones, a 12th grader, met his current partner online through penpaling. Jones’ partner lives in Britain, is half Japanese and raised Buddhist, while Eli was raised in a Mexican-American and devout Catholic household.
When Eli and his partner first met, he explained they just wanted to learn about each other’s cultures more because they didn’t know much, but they stayed respectful and curious the whole time.
Mason King, a 12th grader, stated in his previous relationship the cultural and financial differences between him and his partner made it hard to relate.
“We grew up very financially different as well, and we just had very different lifestyles,” King said. “ I feel like my problems and his problems were very different. And so when it led us to have something to talk to, I feel like it wasn’t fully clicking.”
“There’s not a lot of gay people around here, at least that I know, so I feel like it makes it harder to meet people without like, online social media apps,” said King, who identifies as as gay.
Despite King’s overall positive experiences with social media dating, he explains it can get boring after a while, especially because he says many people he’s interacted with don’t want committed relationships.
Samantha Green, a 12th grader, met her previous partner at church and described him as much more introverted than her and “chronically online.”
“It’s normal when you’re texting and like, everything’s fine,” Green said. “But then you’re in person, it can be weird, especially around other people.”
Green said that social media dating is “kind of less effort” and that it can make dating harder, but it’s fun to get to talk to someone similar to you on social media because they are accessible to you all the time.
Jones shares a different perspective, saying that it’s difficult for him and his partner to spend time together because they live on different continents, but is still grateful for online dating.
“Without being online like, this wouldn’t have really been possible,” Jones said. “I don’t think we would have met each other, so I’m grateful for that. But also, like, the plan is to meet up and like, we’re not gonna stay online forever.”
“I’m not worried about it at all and I’m really, really, like looking forward to it,” Jones said, having no anxiety about meeting his partner in the future.
