Are you mad because I have a boyfriend and you don’t?
My best friend has said things like, “We need to find you a boyfriend,” or “He would be perfect for you” to me ever since she got a boyfriend. Since when has having a significant other been such a major issue for my generation? What’s surprising is the lack of actual dating in college.
The dating culture that my parents and even my older siblings experienced is vastly different from the one I’m currently in. Nowadays, a text message sent at ten at night saying “What’s up” is the norm. There is no more asking people on dates. Dating has been replaced with watching Netflix and hanging out. Hookups come before you even learn someone’s name.
It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to find people in relationships. Many people are either “talking” or “having a thing with someone” and won’t admit that they are dating. We get excited if the guy we like decides to like our Instagram posts and becomes our Snapchat best friend.
With this new age of technology and social media, things have just gotten worse. Our phones have made it seem less personal. We don’t call people anymore when we could just send them a text instead. How is one supposed to understand a person through text message?
According to an article published in the New York Times, millennials are "a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend." Our generation casually throws around the term “hookup culture,” but it is all too true in our society. Men are worried about coming off too strong and women sit around trying to decipher a cryptic text message.
One idea that many believe to be true was stated in a New York Times article: “A lot of men in their 20s are reluctant to take the girl to the French restaurant, or buy them jewelry because those steps tend to lead to ‘eventually, we’re going to get married.'” We see relationships as only one thing: will this lead to marriage? This terrifies many twenty-somethings because our culture is all about the now and succeeding in life. We don’t have time to worry about dating and relationships.
This Cosmopolitan article said it perfectly: It's time to speak in full sentences, not emoji.
So be bold and ask the person you are talking to out on a real date, and not just to Netflix and chill.
