Most days, I wish I could go back to when I was a little kid and dating only involved telling someone you liked them and maybe holding hands on the playground. You would have your friends pass notes between you and the person you liked, hoping they would respond before the start of the weekend. It was a simpler time when the worst thing that could happen is that the person you were interested in would just say you had "cooties" or that they were already "dating" someone. Now, dating is a complicated world of apps, random hook-ups, blind dates and needing the motivation to put yourself out there.
At the age of 21, I have tried out how many people in our generation navigate dating. I've been a member of different dating apps, still maintaining the hope I'll meet someone the "old-fashioned" way.
While many of my friends have either talked to people or ended up dating someone who they met on a dating app, it's still considered to be taboo to be in a relationship that started from the act of both of you swiping right on each others' profiles. People think it's funny to talk to strangers on Tinder or Bumble when you have no intention of meeting them but once you tell your friends that you are going to meet them for a date, their jaws kind of drop. I am a part of the generation that is glued to their phones and computers but for some reason, many still think it's ridiculous that dating can involve the technology we can't live without.
This concept needs to stop being so flipping taboo.
If you consider yourself to be a millennial, at some point you will use a dating app to find a date, a significant other or even your spouse! This is becoming the norm for dating in our generation. Dating the "old-fashioned" way is becoming harder as our world becomes more global and more technologically advanced. Meeting your significant other at a coffee shop or at a bus stop is becoming less likely to happen because guess what, you're probably on your damn phone, too distracted to look up and see your soulmate standing next to you.
There is no one correct way to "date" or to be in a relationship. It's up to each of us to figure that out on our own. As a generation, we need to start becoming more open minded about those of us who want to use a dating app to help the search for love. It's hard putting ourselves out there, so we need to cheer on the people who dive head first into the nerve-racking world of dating apps. Let's realize that this is becoming a reality in dating and embrace it.
It's okay to be alone. But once you're ready to put yourself out there, it's as easy as opening your app store to begin your journey towards love.
