Crush Culture during COVID-19: Pinning your Zoom crush

How hopeless romantics and the avid dating community are finding a way to crush online  

Taylor DeGuzman / Arts & Culture Editor / The USD Vista

COVID-19 has brought forth several obstacles to everyday life. However, it appears that the community that is taking one of the biggest hits this year includes the hopeless romantics and the avid dating app users (not to mention those who happen to find themselves always in a relationship no matter the circumstance).
At the beginning of quarantine, many struggled to cope with the fact that kissing their crush wouldn’t be a possibility for a long time; for some, kissing their crush wouldn’t be a possibility for a long time, global pandemic or not. Moving off campus and back home meant no more “random” sleepovers and late-night hangouts with “friends.” Gone are the days where one would dress up extra cute, hair done, smelling good with their Bath and Body Works body spray, just to brush shoulders with their crush during passing period. First dates at Chick-fil-A were no longer an option. How could one both enjoy their spicy chicken sandwich and enjoy their spicy date with six feet in between them? The answer is still undefined. 
There are invisible guidelines, especially during the coronavirus, for crush culture and the do’s and don’ts for dating. This new column, “Crush Culture during COVID-19” will discover how individuals during a global pandemic are handling their crushes and satisfying all their romantic needs and desires. Today, we’re swiping right on “Zoom Pinning Your Crush” and how individuals are still developing crushes during online classes. 
The term “getting pinned” doesn’t have the same meaning as it did back in the 50s and 60s. Back in the day, a gentleman would physically give a token, sometimes a silver or gold ring, to his girlfriend to publicly announce their relationship. Fraternities would hold “pinning ceremonies,” where a fraternity member would pin his girlfriend with his fraternity pin to symbolize his high form of commitment to her. Nowadays, especially in the world of online Zoom classes, pinning means something much more simple. 

During a typical Zoom class, the main screen that someone views is either showing the professor lecturing or the PowerPoint slides. However, it is possible to pin someone else’s screen so that one can see them instead of watching their professor or watching the ongoing lecture. For example, if someone is crushing on a person they find attractive in their class, they can instead, pin their crush’s screen to just stare at them, and not pay attention to the lecture. That way, their crush has no idea that they are looking directly at them, something that wouldn’t fly as easy if class were in person. 
To keep their identity private, as well as keep their crush guessing, an anonymous source weighed in on Zoom pinning culture and why they think so many people do it. 
“When class is in person, you normally get the opportunity to meet a lot of people, and when you have a crush in your class, it’s always exciting to see where they’re sitting,” the unnamed source said. “Pinning my Zoom crush is a different way of spicing up the classroom. Class can get really boring and overwhelming when you don’t know people, so pinning someone is kind of a fun way to get to know your class, especially your crush.” 
The anonymous source characterized Zoom pinning as an unspoken rule to add to the crushing during the coronavirus handbook. They explained that they had an interesting experience with someone sliding into their Zoom DMs, through private message. 
“I’ve had a couple weird Zoom DM experiences,” the unnamed source said. “Last semester, I put Tiger King as my zoom background and someone privately DM’d me and said they liked it. We talked back and forth that whole class period and we ended up keeping in touch throughout the semester and on Snapchat.” 

Living in this new virtual world of online classes and mainly online interactions has shifted crush culture to a lack of face-to-face communication and an increase of virtual crushing from afar. Those hesitant to have in-person dates – especially with the risk of mask-fishing and not fully seeing your date’s face underneath their mask –  have to stick to pinning their crush on Zoom and possibly gaining the courage to private message them during class. Perhaps a private message might even transpire to a date over Zoom, and if they really hit it off, a socially-distanced picnic could happen in the near future. 
However, if someone decides to meet their Zoom crush in person, there are a series of questions one must ask: Within the past 14 days, have you had contact with anyone that you know had COVID-19 or COVID-like symptoms? Have you had a positive COVID-19 test for the active virus in the past 10 days? Within the past 14 days, has a public health or medical professional told you to self-monitor, self-isolate, or self-quarantine because of concerns about COVID-19 infection? But, that’s a story for a different time.