Covid-19 unlocks virtual fun, games, even sex, sort of

Picture this: it’s day three of the lockdown and South Africans, like the rest of the world, are having virtual fun.Disneyland is offering virtual rides, a five-star hotel in the US is offering cocktail classes online and there are even tantric-sex lessons available on a local Facebook page.

In Johannesburg, intimacy coach and singer Anne-Marie Clulow used her The Pleasure Show on Facebook, where she performs her songs, to explain the “nature of pleasure, tantric and sexual awakening”. It was viewed about 387 times on a single day. “It was essential to go virtual, as many face-to-face coaching or singing gigs at the moment are not possible due to Covid-19,” she said.

Rhumbelow Theatre, a Durban company, will have virtual shows. Its director, Roland Stansell, said the theatre would begin its Lockdown Online Streaming Shows.The theatre will stream past shows.

“We decided to go this route as an option because performers need to earn some money,” he said. “We had to think of some creative ways to generate a revenue flow.”

For a “seat”, virtual patrons need to make a minimum donation of R100 a person.

But not everyone online during the lockdown is trying to make money. When a group of eight Johannesburg friends could not make their monthly get-together, they decided to “connect” over a game of 30 Seconds.

The four couples logged into Zoom, a meeting app.

“Everyone had to have the actual board game and teams were split between couples, to avoid cheating. We also had one person who was the dedicated timekeeper to avoid any disputes. It was also dependent on your internet connection. Some people’s faces were frozen, which was interesting to the game,” said Neilyn Tathiah.

The friends also plan to play charades, Pictionary and even compete in a dance-off party from their own homes during the lockdown.

Another couple, Berlin-based Ulisha and Sashen Moodley, played 30 Seconds with their friends in Johannesburg and London via Google Hangouts.

“It was really fun. It was a good catch-up. We are looking into playing something else via an app called Houseparty,” said Ulisha.

Houseparty is a social video chat app that went viral when many countries went on lockdown around the world.

Johannesburg copywriter Shelley Pembroke’s #QuarantinePubQuiz on Twitter had nearly 4,000 viewers with about 50 teams participating.

“The #QuarantinePubQuiz is completely the right platform to let off a little steam, get a little competitive and experience a lot of common-goal fun. We just want South Africans to group together, share their knowledge, maybe have a glass of wine and enjoy some fun with us,” Pembroke said.

Technology expert Arthur Goldstuck said there would be distinct new modes of life, work and education in the “new world” after the crisis.

“We will probably see two extreme categories of reaction, namely people desperate for human contact and going overboard in re-socialising, and people who have been traumatised by the pandemic and are now paranoid about human contact. The vast majority in between will be desperate for life to return to normal. The quest for normalcy and for catching up socially will probably dominate individual behaviour,” he said.

“We will see the rapid demise of the cinema as we know it, as more and more people discover how much more cost-effective it is to stream movies and video series, and just how much content is available for the cost of a single visit to the cinema.

“Although virtual-reality tours and virtual entertainment will fill the gap for many people during lockdown, the need for real-world experiences will be massive. We can therefore expect an explosion of experience-based activity,” he said.