Is it reasonable to assume that a date will spend $3 (about R50) more for the cheese on their burger?
As a recent TikTok video drove the internet into a boiling frenzy over a narrative that wasn’t even true, the question became a viral litmus test for excessive relationship expectations.
New York City resident Dafna Diamant took to TikTok last week to gripe about a first date, telling the camera she paid the bill and walked out when her date allegedly grumbled about the $3 fee for adding cheese to his burger.
“I texted him, ‘The check cleared, you should have gotten the cheese,'” Diamant said in the video. “And I blocked it.”
The video, which garnered more than 6 million views in just a few days, has spurred contentious discussions on social media over whether it's a bad idea to save a little money for a dinner extra or, more specifically, whether Diamant's date avoided trouble by making the proper financial decision.
Opinions started to flood in as viewers tended to favour the latter perspective.
"Even I wouldn't spend $3 for cheese LOL," reads a comment that received more than 160 000 likes. Another comment on Tik Tok reads, "Bro is financially literate," - and this has almost 100 000 likes.
But, the report that is now making the rounds on the internet isn't quite accurate. He said that Diamant's date didn't reject cheese or try to block him outside.
Instead, the pair heard a man at a nearby table ask about the cost of adding cheese to a customer's burger and then declined the request after learning that it would cost $3. The two got into a discussion on what each of them would have done in that circumstance after the interaction.
@dafna_diamant It was $55 #datinglife #storytime #datinginyour20s #datinginnyc #icant ♬ original sound - Dafna
“If I’m sitting on an appointment with a person and I feel like they’re saving something that will make their meal more enjoyable, they’ll continue to save on the rest of our appointments,” Diamant told NBC News. “It’s not about the cheese. It’s all about going to a restaurant and having fun with your date”, she added.
Diamant said that she spoke with her date why she would be angry if people responded negatively to the price hike and that her date supported her point of view. She stated the conversation served as the inspiration for the ensuing TikTok video, in which he asserted that his date was on board from the beginning.
They weren't prepared, though, for what they assumed would be a humorous video to turn into an impassioned discussion about dating standards. The amount of attention she received, according to Diamant, was a little too much, especially after reading remarks labelling her as "crazy" or saying that she "is going to die on her own." She makes an effort not to focus on the toxic engagement in her own video.
“It’s not about the cheese. It’s all about going to a restaurant and having fun with your date”, TikTok creator Dafna Diamant says in her viral Tik Tok video.
In a follow up video she admits to making the whole thing up, and says, “even he thinks it’s funny. And we’ve only had one date, so he’s in no way obligated to me, but he’s checking to see if I’m okay,” she said. “And I try not to take it personally, because it didn’t really happen.”
A Tik Tok creator who hinted that he was Diamant's date that night in the days after Diamant's TikTok video garnered 7 million views on his work, exceeding even the original. He wrote in a comment that he dodged “not a bullet but a nuclear attack.”
It's amusing to observe how readily people trust false information online, according to Diamant, who verified that this creator wasn't her date. He claimed that people's eagerness to accept conjecture, together with the keen interest many viewers have in dating dramas, makes it simple for discussions about such situations to turn increasingly dramatic.
“It seems people who had an opinion against me get affirmation that they are right, so they continued the conversation and commented on the videos as well [on my page] which have no relation to history,” he said. “If you weren’t someone with enough self-confidence, some of these comments can really drive someone to do crazy things. So I hope people find something better to do than comment mean things on someone’s videos and photos.”
She stated that she would wish for her genuine date's identity to remain a secret. In a different TikTok video, he stated the two are arranging a second date.