It’s almost impossible to keep up with today’s dating do’s and don’ts if you didn’t grow up in this era. If you are yet to understand why your parents keep saying, “Kids these days…”, well, you’re just about to.
#1. Finding potential dates was hard, but rewarding, as it meant having to develop your interpersonal skills. Today, you don’t even need to leave the house… because the internet has taken care of that for you.
Contacts did not just include friends and coworkers. If you were over 25, it meant your mother and aunt, too. But above all, it necessitated socialising in the real world. In today’s techie age, the dating process revolves almost entirely around Facebook and Tinder.
#2. Competing for a girl before must’ve looked like an Ironman triathlon. For many people these days, it’s literally swiping on a phone screen.
Basically, if you wanted to beat the opposition, you had to prove your worth, whether it was by the largest stack of chopped fire wood or the best waltz routine. Now you no longer even need to talk to your date — all you need are a few good photos, a Tinder account, and it’s a match!
#3. Dates before sounded romantic. Today, they are typically squeezed in between gym sessions and lunch.
Our parents’ stories told of dates usually involving candlelit dinners and walks along the beach. But busy lifestyles and our need to be online 24/7 have shrunk our available time for leisure — including our dating hours. Who even has time anymore?
#4. Asking a girl out on a date may have started with looking down the barrel of her father’s shotgun. Nowadays, not much effort is put into asking someone out anymore.
Okay, maybe not a shotgun per se, but the point is that it was never easy. Guys had to have a courtship stage before they were even allowed into the courtship stage. Today, that is but an extinct concept. Why complicate things when you can just SMS her a one-word sentence, or Snapchat a photo of your junk? That should make your intentions super clear from the get-go.
#5. “Going steady” required weeks of preparation, and possibly a panic attack or two. Now it’s acceptable to be just “under the understanding” that you are an item.
It was a really big deal back then to ask a girl to be exclusive. In contrast, it has now become common for people to do couple things without the commitment. Hence the terms, “almost relationship” or “non-relationship relationship”.
#6. Letters, postcards, and telegrams were how long-distance couples would communicate. Do people still write with pen and paper nowadays?
And some of these letters were 10 pages long. Just imagine! But with the dawn of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Snapchat… everything is not only instant, but the frequency and regularity of messages means most of us don’t even bother to form a complete sentence anymore.
#7. Let’s face it: chivalry used to be important. Although it’s still very much alive, there are new rules at play.
Opening doors for girls, picking up the check, making the first move… it was all expected of guys, and girls just had to follow their lead. Times have definitely changed in this sense. Girls can pay for dates and ask the guy out without being too “forward”. Chivalry has undergone a metamorphosis in that it’s no longer gender-limited.
#8. Breaking up before meant throwing his stuff in a box and hiding it in the back of your closet ’til kingdom come. But how do you avoid someone who’s constantly on your Twitter feed and Instagram’s his new girlfriend five times a week?
Before the Internet took over our lives, all your memories with your then-significant other were not preserved on your Facebook photo albums. There was no online presence of your relationship left to hound you even after you had both gone separate ways. Yes, the post-breakup emotional turmoil is no different. But at least you wouldn’t have to see their faces and remember them every few minutes on your News Feed.