During our parents’ generation, dating was not easy. During our generation, it hasn't gotten any easier. To be honest, it probably won't be any easier for future generations either. For every generation, there is going to be something new in technology, society, and forms of communication. Whether a person calls it dating, courting, going steady, or anything else, being in a relationship is not easy and never will be. A relationship is between two people who care for one another on a deep emotional level that no one outside of the relationship will ever understand. Even so, there are definitely major differences regarding college dating between our parents’ generation and our generation. The biggest issue is parents trying to understand our generation of dating and our trying to understand their era of dating.
The ways of asking out a significant other was different for our parents than it is for us nowadays. However, this isn't to say one way is better than another. Our parents didn't carry around cellphones in college, nor was it popular to use technology to ask another person to go out with them. Our parents also had different phrases to use in the dating world. The phrases in the dating world are similar to slang words, constantly changing in definition and context.
1. Will you go with me? vs. Will you go out with me?
Two completely different sayings, and yet both are asking a person to be a significant other of another person. These two people don't actually have to go anywhere, this is just the question to start the courtship.
2. Hooking up...?
For our parents, hooking up with a person meant kissing. To describe casual hook-ups, "they did it" was usually said. For our generation, it is a bit of a gray area. Hooking up for our generation can mean anything from kissing to sex and everything in between.
3. Relationships
Our parents would usually always see a relationship between a male and female; this was the definition of a relationship. For our parents' generation, interracial relationships were not uncommon and were seen as normal. What was rarely seen and not considered normal was the LGBT community or other relationships. Yet for our generation, these relationships are seen all the time and are actually considered to be somewhat normal. In the present day, there are many people who are very comfortable with their sexuality, even people from our parents’ generation. Just because the types of relationships are different now than they once were, doesn't make one relationship easier or better than another.
All relationships are different, and all relationships are hard. It doesn't matter the generation (time period), the two genders involved, or the society the couples are faced with. Each relationship in a person's life matters during a specific period of time shared between the two people. The most intimate part of a relationship between the couple matters, not the sex, not the public appearance, or how many dates/special occasions there have been. The amount of time in a relationship doesn't matter either. The intimate part of a relationship is when it is just two people together sharing a moment: of emotion, dark secrets, and things that others wouldn't truly understand.
Dating, in the eyes of society, may have changed over time. But the necessities for a relationship haven't changed at all. A relationship needs the intimate parts, the communication, and the comfort of another person's support.
