The Evolution Of Dating

The world of dating is very much different now a days.... In fact, in my opinion, it's easier.

With the ever-growing intelligence of technology, the world has become more connected and networked together. People across the country and even from other continents can hold a conversation with one another as if they were in the same room, all thanks to the advancement of smart phones and electronics with built in cameras.

Let's be honest, the way people date today is far different from the way our parents or even grandparents dated. It's true what some say about chivalry... it's slowly fading from today's youth generation. I'm not saying all youth are disrespectful or anything, just stating the point that it's rare to see a guy these days open the car door for a girl. What happened to classy?

The root of the problem lies clearly in the invention of the internet. Before the internet, people had to go out and meet up at bars/restaurants/through the help of mutual friends. These days it's as simple as unlocking your phone and clicking on an app. Sometimes you  even get to know someone before ever meeting; hiding behind the keyboard of a smartphone. What happened to courage?

"True Love" is decreasing in numbers. It's out there, but it can sometimes be difficult to find. Instead we obsess over which selfie to use for our profile picture. That's the scary thing if you ask me... a majority of mankind's identity is represented by a filtered profile picture. Now a days there's love at first instagram photo rather than love at first site. What happened to the element of surprise?

Dating was once a dinner and a movie, these days it's "Netflix and Chill". Now, don't get me wrong... It would sound completely hypocritical if I said I was against this, it's just different and much lazier. Perhaps this is why the rate of divorce has increased over the years, the temptation of easy access to someone's profile/messenger is overwhelming to some. What happened to loyalty?

I remember the days of mustering up courage to even ask for a phone number,then once I had it, it felt like an anxiety attack to make the next move and call. Once you find the strength to dial his/her number, then the sweating begins because it's a house-line and their parents could very well pick up. I hated the question "and... who is this?" Oh... it's just some guy who was walking in the mall and thought your daughter was "cute", Sir, so i asked for her phone number... Is she home? It was at this point when my heart would be pounding with fear. Half the time it was fine and the conversations were long, not through texting either, full on engagement conversations where you could actually tell the emotion in their voice rather than guessing through a message how that person really feels. The half of the time, the father or the girl would just hang up the phone on me before I even had a chance (insert sad face emoticon here).

We express ourselves through social media by creating a type of "Permanent Record". The only privacy is if you manually create it through the settings of a platform and still then, people can still see what you're up to.

Dating is not how it used to be 50 years ago, it's rather easier. Through the help of dating websites and apps, there's almost a match for everyone and you even get to be picky! After all, everyone has a preference, am I right?

There will come a day where people will have to resort back to the way dating was before technology or electronics and when that day comes, nobody born past the year 2000 will know what to do or where to even start. Makes you wonder.... doesn't it.

Hear me out when I say... I'm not perfect. I've had my fair share of relationships and whenever I'm join one, I do my best to show the upmost-respect as I can. Whether it's opening doors or surprising them with flowers whenever I could, no matter what day of the week it was, for absolutely no reason at all besides to simply say "You mean a lot to me" metaphorically through delivered roses.

I'll be honest when I say, I love the ladies, but every one deserves my best, as it should be with any relationship. Nobody is perfect, but everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Times have changed. The simplicity of finding a soul mate is almost too easy. What happened to dating?