Lately there has been a lot of blurred lines when it comes to dating. What defines dating? What do two people have to do to be considered dating? Is dating even a thing anymore? Some may be even bold enough to say that dating is becoming phased out. Now how can this be possible?

First things first, no matter how far away 'dating' gets from actual dating, 'dating' or being 'a couple' will never not exist. There will always be something between being friends and being engaged/married (if the relationship were to progress that far). The real problem is that there is such a loose use of the term 'dating'.

I hate to be one of those people who calls out technology (and don't get me wrong, I love technology) but it really has put great strains on modern dating. Its become way too easy to start and end relationships, and to cheat on a significant other. Most modern relationships start through technology in some sense-whether it be through social media, or you start texting someone you go to school with. Social media and cell phones has taken a lot of the personal aspects out of dating-there's less of a need for a face to face conversation. As much as this can be helpful for those who would consider themselves shy, and would struggle to approach someone they have feelings for in person, it can really have a lot of damage.

Its way easier to lie about who you are when you're communicating through text or social media. I don't mean full on cat-fishing (lying about what you look like, your name, etc.) but more so creating a persona for yourself. Imagine, you're texting a boy you think is cute and he brings up that he loves cars. He knows all about them and hopes to grow up and collect vintage cars. Through text its SO easy to pretend you're into cars too. You have the whole internet at your finger tips and it wouldn't be difficult to google "vintage cars" and spew out some facts and pretend that you've been into this stuff for years.

Now if you were face to face you would have to admit that you don't know much about cars, but you would be interested in hearing about them! Lying about things you're interested in will only come back to bite you later-you can only hold up a lie for so long.

The second problem with modern dating is how easy it is to start and end relationships. Because you can just start texting someone to tell them you like them, you can start relationships really quickly-even without fully understanding what a relationships is. The same goes for ending relationships. You can easily text someone to tell them you want to break up. You don't have to face the person and see their reaction-which makes it easier to toy with people's emotions. Its sad to say but that kind of thing happens all the time.

The third problem comes with cheating. Now I'm not saying that cheating didn't exist before technology because it definitely did. However, technology has made it much easier to find someone to cheat with, and to actually engage with the cheating. Now people don't even have to be together to be cheating.

With all these problems with modern dating, is actual dating becoming a thing of the past? It doesn't have to be. Its extremely refreshing to know that there are people who still do dating right. They get to know people in person before starting a relationship, and have those difficult conversations in person. We just have to remember that dating isn't all about the title, but its about finding someone that you enjoy spending time with and getting to know them (the real them!), and who knows maybe someday God will lead that dating to marriage.