Open your eyes for Love is Blind. PHOTO CREDIT: IMDB
“Love is Blind” is more of an experiment than a reality show as it begs to answer the question, can people fall in love solely on their emotional connection?
The show, created by Chris Coelen, takes the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” quite literally as 30 men and women speed date for 10 days and get engaged in “pods.” These pods are private rooms separated by opaque walls allowing for the couples to speak to each other, but not see each other.
Only through intimate conversations are the couples able to understand the other person who could potentially become their fiancé in a mere 10 days.
The show is unorthodox, to say the least, but season two seems to follow the same pattern as the first. Out of the six couples that were engaged in season one, only two of them said “I do” and are still together today and appear to be happy on social media.
Season two had the same result in regards to engagements and weddings. Whether it is planned or not all of these couples have Instagram accounts where they detail their experiences.
The concept of the show caught my attention when I read its description: “Singles try to find a match and fall in love — without ever seeing each other face-to-face, as emotional connection attempts to conquer physical attraction.”
I know from personal experience people always find themselves saying they wouldn’t care what their partner looks like because they love them for who they are. I always doubted the truth of this kind of statement, because how could you actually know that?
Building relationships entirely through conversation is certainly a way to prove if people can love each other without distractions, such as physical appearance, technology, family, friends, work and school.
Technology can definitely take away the authenticity of meeting new people and actually talking to them. Dating applications such as Tinder or Hinge provide so many options that people often swipe in hopes of finding someone better.
These superficial forms of dating show a few pictures and a description with a 500 character word limit of what the individual wants to share about themselves. Has online dating diminished the genuine nature of connecting with someone and building a relationship?
Although I met my partner in person and not through a wall as these couples did, I decided to ditch the idea of meeting someone through my phone. (No judgments if that’s how you found your soulmate though!)
Especially looking at the past two years, with the COVID-19 pandemic halting human interaction for an extended period of time, people have become used to the idea of communicating with others at work and school being held online. Dating people through the internet was not excluded from this and online dating has been around since 1998.
So should you watch this show? I’d say yes because the drama can reel you in. However, it also creates room to ask yourself questions about your values, desires and boundaries you would want in an intimate relationship.
Is love really blind? I enjoy staying hopeful and saying yes it is. Both seasons are available on Netflix, so don’t hesitate to binge-watch it!