Sex and Relationships During Quarantine

You might not believe that a nineteen-year-old not being able to write an IP paper because scientific knowledge has been concealed by scientists behind unnecessarily complicated, pretentious language and sums of money not many students can afford, is important.

However, I believe there Mel Spiridigliozzi

In my first article of the semester, which was titled “Loves and Laments from Self-Isolation,” I commented on the romanticisms of the early days of “Quarantine.”

Speaking on the concept of “romanticism,” I had stated, “I will admit that the dating scene during quarantine is another topic worth exploring though, albeit in a separate article.”

You guessed it folks! You are currently reading that “separate article!”

Stay-at-home orders became a thing in mid-March of 2020, thereby opening a Angélique Chu

On October 29th, 2020, Kim Kardashian revealed on Twitter that her husband, Kanye West, had gifted her a hologram of her deceased father, Robert Kardashian, for her 40th birthday.

The holographic image of the Kardashian patriarch spoke words of praise and of love to his daughter. However, it is highly plausible that Kanye had a hand in the hologram’s script, as, at one point, the image said, “You married the most, most, most, most, most genius man in the world.” is something truly alarming about the general public, for whom academia has been made so inaccessible for centuries, and the working class, who perhaps don’t have the means to allocate a part of their already unfairly low paychecks to unblocking research, not being able to access knowledge about the world, society or just about anything. floodgate to an onslaught of bored and horny students, who simultaneously decided to create Tinder accounts.

At this point, it was understood that these attempts at staying involved in the dating scene were mostly vacuous, save for a few moments worth of entertainment: “I had a lot of fun because I wasn’t taking it seriously. It was also interesting to see what kind of people I attracted,” said one Vanier Student on the subject of virtual “dating” during the pandemic.

In fact, this trend has pushed others to delete these “dating apps” altogether. This was the case for Kwazi, a Liberal Arts student at Vanier, who “realized there’s no point in it.”

He then went on to describe how he “saw bios with no effort, reading ‘Quarantine sent me here,’ and […] realized that, because people have several matches, nobody can actually give you all of their attention, so the conversaIt would not be a gift from Kanye without a little egostroking, of course.

If the whole situation was not absurd enough already, the hologram even danced to Barry Mann’s hit single Who Put the Bomp. With this unorthodox gift, it seems that holographic imagery is advancing every day. However, one must wonder if it is ethical to bring back deceased individuals as holograms.

This is not the first time a hologram has made headlines. Back in 2012, media

There’s truly something profoundly disturbing about knowledge, something that should be universal, something that should be distributed fairly in order to shrink the gaps of inequality and smash through the cycle of elitism, being so out of reach to the average person that only wants to pass their class or enrich their lives. tions [seemed] scripted.”

Thus, there is a common overtly acknowledged inauthenticity involved with this online dating culture, which points to the idea that more time and energy should be spent with loved ones during “Quarantine” instead.

It is a similar, and admittedly embarrassing, pattern of inauthentic behavior that has led me to write this article. Surely enough, there is something to be said about this online dating culture, wherein we seek a momentary connection amid solitary confinement, yet are adamant about the fact that we don’t take the idea of those connections seriously; it’s quite hypocritical.

Hence, the flip side of this dating app coin is that, while it is superficial, it provides an avenue for communication, regardless of how fleeting it is.

Whether or not such communication is necessary in terms of coping with a collective trauma or of simply tempering the (and most of the world) was shocked to discover that Tupac was alive–as a holographic performer–at that year’s Coachella lineup.

For one night, the rapper was brought back from the dead to perform alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. It was a feat of technology, but I am not sure that the actual 2Pac would have appreciated being resurrected through the miracles of modern technology, only to perform for a bunch of rich white influencers on drugs. He did not die for this capi-

I know this system of money is built purposefully, that it is beneficial for the ruling classes to keep John and Jane Doe ignorant (or whatever), but perhaps it is time for us to realize the implications of all this research being so out of reach.

It goes beyond my inability to write a stupid paper. It

The Ethics of Hollow-grams

is so much more. boredom that accompanies self-isolation, “people […] need to connect with others when times feel uncertain,” explains Natalia Ibanez, General Executive for The Insider.

She also talks about how “there is opportunity in reaching out without the need of commitment.”

In other words, speaking to a stranger opens the door to the possibility of unfiltered openness; anonymity provides a safe space, as people don’t feel the pressure to conform to a preconceived image of themselves.

Therefore, while the fact that one may often only speak to that Tinder match once might point to the fruitlessness of the app in terms of its intended purpose, nonetheless, there is

talist cause.

Admittedly, I find it amazing that we can do such a thing, but a part of me feels as though doing so is exploitative of deceased individuals. The words these holograms “speak” are programmed by others and their script is not their own. Yes, programmers may use verbatim quotes, but they can make these images say and do whatever they want. With these individuals being long gone, they cannot defend themselves, even if they have an estate comfort in the app’s inherent vacuousness.

Another major concern associated with the dating scene is how to go about maintaining a healthy re-

lationship, regardless of whether or not it was established via Tinder, despite social distancing measures.

“I remember Facetiming him every single day for 14 days to make sure he didn’t see anybody before and after [the date],” describes one student, who chooses to remain anonymous, “I took a risk.”

Thus, navigating a budding relationship is now imbued with the new implications involved in keeping those involved safe.

Ultimately, dating apps’ hypocritical culture pro-

or close friends.

Would these corpses appreciate being paraded around as though they were sights at a freak show? I don’t think so.

As holographic technology progresses, one must vides a space wherein there are no expectations for commitment, making it a means to ease one’s boredom or to speak candidly, particularly about the current state of affairs.

As Natalia Ibanez recapitulates these ideas, she says, “We don’t give social media enough credit to communicate and connect with people. We see it as superfluous and superficial in many ways, which is the case, but we’re missing out on the side of the coin.”

However, when it comes to going on a date with a Tinder match, or even with a long-established partner, the questions of whether or not it is worth the risk, as well as of how to best keep safe, inevitably lingers in the depths of the collective subconscious.

take these ethical issues into consideration — at least, I hope they do. Holograms of the deceased were once individuals full of life like you and me. They deserve a smidge of respect in the afterlife, except for Hitler and Ronald Reagan