Social media, messengers and online dating apps displace the classic ways of meeting each other and building relationships. The question arises, is there a classic dating at all in the 21st century? Let’s try to sort it out.
What is Classic Dating?
First of all let’s try to find out what “classic dating” is.
Dating in the classical sense of this concept is the first stage of building romantic relationships, when 2 people meet each other in order to explore whether they are mentally and physically compatible for a serious relationship.
So, in other words, people go out and try to find out whether they fit each other. Here are some things that they try to get to know.
Life values.
Preferences.
Attitude to important things.
Life experience.
etc.
Even 25 years ago it was like this…
In most of the cases couples met each other through friends (33%), in a bar (19%), at work (19%) or college (19%).
They go on a real offline date. Usually the first date takes place in a cafe and continues by walking in the park. Couple talks about their jobs, hobbies, pets, preferences in movies, music, food, etc.
It is safe to say that the first and the second date looks like the “job interview”. And both parties are employers and employees at the same time.
Classic dating lasts until the couple realizes that they are compatible or incompatible.
Modern Dating
If we return back to the diagram we will notice that according to statistics most of the couples in the 21st century meet each other online (39%).
People heavily use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Dating sites, etc.
Also the entire communication moved from chatting in person to messengers and social media. Just take a look at the chart that reveals how people communicate (2012 - 2018).
As we can see chatting in person fell down from 49% in 2012 till 32% in 2018. At the same time social media raised from 7% to 16%, video-chatting from 2% to 10% and texting from 33% to 35%.
No wonder. Classic dating helped people get to know each other. Right now you don’t need this. Everything you want to know about the person is in his/her social media or profile on a dating app.
Here is a good article for men How to Find a Girlfriend in the 21st century.
You can find out what the person does for living, hobbies, places he/she visited. So, before people meet in person they have plenty of information about each other. Hence, first dates are extremely different now than they were 25 years back.
Moreover, with the fast internet development a lot has changed geographically. For example, one no longer needs to find a couple locally. Online dating helps to connect people from different points of the world.
If you want to meet someone from Europe you can go with the European dating site.
If you look for a Slavic dating you can check VictoriyaClub or GoldenBride sites.
Luckily plenty of jobs right now can be done from anywhere on Earth. So, people are no longer attached to a place. Moreover, modern communication tools, like Skype, Zoom, FaceTime make it easier to maintain long-distance relationships.
Wrap Up
So, we have to admit that modern dating is very different from the classic one. People are much more open and plenty of things moved online.
Good or Bad? Obviously, there are plenty of good things in classic dating. It seems like it is a bit more romantic and intriguing. On the other hand modern dating with social media, messengers and dating apps is easier and more efficient. And it is not that scary for unconfident people.
Dating just evolved in what we have now. And we have to accept that. Though, there are still people that prefer classic ways of building relationships. Hope we will save it for a long time.
