Top 5 Trending Relationship Traditions

This article is from our print magazine issued January 1st 2022. To order a copy of the magazine please do so here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we do a lot of things. Sure, it has us washing our hands more and making sure we always have an extra mask in our car, but it also changed the way we go about our daily lives, interact with people we care about, and have relationships. Life has gotten much more virtual since March 2020, and even as the world is opening back up, some of these changes have stuck around. Read on to find out what the top 5 trending relationship traditions are in January 2022.

1. Date nights are getting more creative

One of the most common relationship traditions is “date night,” but it looks a little different now. For the better part of the past two years, going out for the classic “dinner and a movie” date night was either difficult or downright impossible due to COVID restrictions. Dates started to look less like indoor dinner reservations and a rom-com, and more like parklet lunches, park picnics, and outdoor strolls. Now that the weather is colder and COVID restrictions are back up in many counties, takeout and a movie at home is becoming the date night norm.

2. Virtual dates are more common than ever before

During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual dates became the norm. Dating apps such as Tinder reported that more and more of their users were video chatting with their matches. Dating apps also saw an increase in users not making plans to meet up in real life, and instead doing a virtual “activity” such as eating delivery meals over Zoom at the same time or playing an online game together. Even as the pandemic died down, virtual dates remained popular, and more and more couples are having virtual date nights.

3. More and more couples are doing TikTok trends together

The pandemic saw a vast increase in the popularity of many social media platforms such as TikTok, since everyone was staying at home and looking for something to pass the time. TikTok gave rise to lots of new trends, including dance routines, new kitchen hacks, and the many infamous “play this prank on your partner” videos. Because so many people were bored at home, it became a major trend to hang out with your partner and do your own version of a TikTok trend you saw another couple doing. TikTok is now full of joint accounts of “TikTok couples.” It’s becoming more and more popular for other couples to follow these couples, make their own couples account, and try their version of a dance or prank they saw their favorite TikTok couple doing. The hashtag “#couplegoals” is more relevant than ever, with more than 165 billion views on TikTok.

4. More couples are having honest, heart to heart conversations

Losing more than a year of experiences made many people think about what they truly want out of life and relationships. The pandemic also made it more common for people to discuss mental health and normalize going to therapy. This is because COVID-19 was a shared traumatic experience everyone was going through together. Because of that, having honest conversations and straightforward talks with your partner is becoming a more typical relationship tradition. Honesty is in!

5. There’s a rise in couples being “more adventurous”

In the dating world of 2022, one of the top trending relationship traditions is - well, abandoning tradition. While date nights are still one of the leading traditions (although they don’t always look how they used to), there has been an increase in couples who are looking to break outside the norm, explore non-monogamy, and do things they maybe would not have done pre-pandemic. We think this is because of a very similar reason to #4: staying home (and maybe losing loved ones) made many people realize that life is short, and there were a lot of different things they wanted to experience. Dating apps reported seeing an extreme rise in both singles and couples looking for non-monogamous experiences.

Almost two years after the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world, the dating playing field looks like it never has before. As the virtual world (and TikTok) gets more and more popular, new changes are happening every day. What do you think relationship traditions will look like in 2023? So happy to share this with you loving folks. Keep loving & living.