Deciphering and navigating the online world of dating
Dating in the age of social media is complicated and that is coming from a Gen Zer. What happened to the times when writing love letters back and forth were a thing? Or meeting people at places and engaging in stimulating face-to-face conversation until the day an actual relationship flourished?
Now it is all about meeting people online and having social media profiles portraying your life as “interesting” or “fun” in order to have someone even consider striking up a conversation with you. Social media has changed the rules when it comes to dating, and it is not necessarily a good thing.
Let’s discuss the dating etiquette in 2018 and some of the terminology that goes along with it.
When two people meet each other online and either go on a date or not, and then one decides to no longer associate with the other. For some reason people in this generation are afraid of confrontation, so instead of communicating a decision to end the relationship, the reaction is to stop answering any kind of message, Snapchat or calls, and pretending the other person no longer exists.
While “talking” has always existed, in the past talking included face-to-face or telephone conversations. Today, the “talking” phase of dating usually happens whenever two people meet each other online and text or Snapchat back and forth daily but are not “dating” or will not confess their feelings about the other person directly. It becomes a constant guessing game leaving both parties wondering if they are the only person in each other’s lives all the while having to pretend everything’s perfect, but in reality, both parties involved are confused.
Online dating apps like Tinder have made it possible to exert minimal effort in socializing directly with one another, mostly conducted through a keyboard. The user is given an option to swipe right for someone who seems interesting and left for someone who does not. If a user swipes right for someone and that someone also swipes right, then the app will notify them they are a “match,” and from there it’s up to them to start a conversation.
These dating apps give off an illusion of variety, making this generation think that there are possibly endless, amazing people out there to meet. They will keep swiping left until their “perfect” match pops up, then they will swipe right. But it does not end there, when they come across a person that is attractive to them, they will rush over to social media and stalk that person profiles indefinitely.
When people like what they see on a dating app, stage 10 stalking will come into effect. It is easy to get on any social media application, like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc., and look up the person you are attracted to. Serious creeping can lead to eventually hitting that person’s very first post on Facebook and stalking all going on social media posts. After all, how well do you really know someone before checking what they tweet on a daily basis?
Dating in 2018
Although the world of dating is full of unspoken feelings and deciphering Snapchats, at its heart dating is not any more or any less complicated than what other generations before us had to go through when it came to finding the one. The experience of love will continue to be ineffable, but we must take risks, put ourselves out there and try to engage in meaningful conversations. The worst that could happen is rejection, but like they say, “there are plenty of fish in the sea.”
Just like our parents and grandparents before us who also had to navigate through the awkward stages of dating, we must adapt to the world and society we are living in and, like them, find a relationship in our time.
