…And that’s when it hit me: Wait, this may be everyone’s chance at finding, like, actual love love. Hear me out for a sec, and allow me (and experts who know what they’re talking about) to explain:

Contestants on Love Is Blind proposed to each other after a couple of short weeks (no kissing, no touching, and no awkward side-hugging necessary). And sure, less than half of those couples actually went through with their engagement, but there’s something to be said for establishing an ~emotional~ connection before a physical one.

Plenty of us (hi, me again) are still interested in meeting someone even if we can’t actually meet meet them for several weeks. Which means it’s all about video-chatting, texting, and phone calls to connect with our matches, forcing singles to “solely get to know each other by asking questions about themselves, their family, their hobbies, etc.,” says Maria Sullivan, dating expert and VP of Dating.com. “This allows both parties to connect due to similarities in each other’s lives and not on physical looks or lust.” 

This speaks volumes considering I’d probs ignore every red flag if someone who resembled Henry Cavill were sitting across from me IRL. So clearly, you can take advantage of this time to vet your matches before you’re in person, slightly tipsy off of one vodka soda, and suddenly finding yourself unbothered by the fact that they still live at home with their parents.

Lots of singles also have little else to do in their free time at the moment than to communicate and chat with each other (looking at all of you “too busy to even think or consider dating”).

This hiatus allows swipers to spend the time asking matches the important questions you don’t always get to on a first date, like: Does pineapple belong on pizza? And where do you see yourself in five years? And hey, even if you don’t find The One (lol), just think of it as a chance for some human connection you would normally swipe left on…a welcome addition during a kinda lonely time.

It’s also a great opportunity to see how potential partners behave under v stressful situations. “People have lost money. Businesses have been shaken. They’re going stir crazy due to cabin fever,” says Nancy Ruth Deen, breakup coach at hellobreakup. If you can see how someone reacts under these circumstances right at the beginning of your blossoming romance, “It’ll give you good insight into how they handle unexpected life challenges,” she adds.

So yeah, the TL;DR here is that self-isolating can have one very distinct upside. Sure, IRL chemistry matters, but gauging compatibility via FaceTime and weeding out matches based on if they know how to use “your” versus “you’re” (or other even more vital info) is crucial—and what you probably don’t consider when the world is acting in non-crisis mode. 

This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan US.

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