One of my best friends moved to Bangalore just a couple of months before lockdown. Reluctant to make the move, Riya (name changed) had to take the call owing to professional reasons. And just when she was beginning to settle down, the lockdown was announced. She wasn’t prepared for it, or so I thought.
I called her some 3-4 days into the lockdown to check on her and see if she was able to survive with the bland PG food that she had been bashing every week on the phone. Quite sure of hearing a morose ‘hello,’ I was in for a surprise when she greeted me with a chirping voice. She seemed to be in the best of her spirits. “Riya, are you drunk?” I ended up blurting almost instantly. “No silly, I am in love,” came back to me as my 29-year-old friend giggled over the phone like a teenager.
After a good ten minutes of confusion and absolute denial to understand it on my part, I was told that she had moved in with Aarav (name changed), her colleague and new-found romantic interest, barely 2 weeks into the relationship. And mind you, this used to be a person who’d legit take years just commit to a person, forget moving in! So what ended up converting my non-committal friend?
Well, turns out there’s actually a new term to describe exactly what had happened: Riya’s found herself in a ‘turbo relationship’.
What Is A Turbo Relationship?
A recently coined term, ‘Turbo Relationship’ applies specifically to lockdown couples who got together right before the lockdown, made some quick relationship decisions, and moved in together during the lockdown. The term was first introduced in June this year in a study which was conducted by UK-based relationship-support organization Relate, and a popular dating platform eharmony.
In the report, the term has been ascribed to new couples who have been feeling “seriously committed” owing to the pandemic conditions. According to the report, “Over a third [couples] agree that two months in isolation feels equivalent to two years of commitment, and the same amount say they’ve reached common relationship milestones, such as moving in together, quicker.”
Interestingly, while we might assume otherwise, but according to the study “this acceleration has also led to more sex (23 percent), better communication (28 percent), and the opportunity to discover new, shared passions (18 percent)”!
So, What Led People Into Turbo Relationships?
A pandemic oddity, turbo relationships might appear all the more weird owing to the fact that some of the biggest commitment-phobes have agreed to commit and taken the plunge during the lockdown. One wonders, what might have transpired?
“In wider periods of societal unrest, couples often pull together. The combination of more time spent together, heightened anxiety levels and the removal of common routines – like seeing friends – is an intense mix,” Relate counselor Peter Saddington said of the findings in interaction with Fox News.
That said, the moving-in haste might also have a lot to do with the feeling of loneliness that studies suggest have increased manifold during the lockdown. As suggested by a study by mentalhealth.org, the percentage of those experiencing loneliness went up to 24 percent during the lockdown. The same figure was as low as 10 percent before.
Can Turbo Relationships Survive?
While the pandemic might have had its impact on both recently moved in and long-term couples, a recent survey by The Knot Worldwide X Lasting reveals suggest that the lockdown in many ways has worked to help co-habiting couples connect better. “They say you reach out to your closest confidante at your toughest phase. There is no doubt that this pandemic has dragged us to an uncertain ground and apart from the huge impact it has had on the economy, many lives are swinging on the edge. Partners who chose to move in together to survive this phase chose each other to walk the rope of these unprecedented times and definitely made their relationship a “24 hours together” thing,” the survey reads.
Additionally, the survey posits that the outcome of spending more time together and getting to know each other better during the lockdown has strengthened bonds for these couples. In fact, 66% of the couples who participated in it confirmed that has actually happened with them.
Okay, so this is especially for anyone who’s been getting mocked for their lockdown relationships: turns out, your turbo relationship can actually survive! Experts suggest that given that couples that work on their relationship, communicate clearly, and respect each other’s boundaries can totally make lockdown relationships work.
Featured Image: Instagram
