College is stressful in general. Making it to every class, completing every assignment and trying to figure out what you're going to do with your life. On top of all of this, you have to deal with the crazy world of dating. I am very single and I am totally okay with that. In high school, I never dated anyone. I mean I went on dates, but I never had a boyfriend. Now I am in college and in this awkward transitional stage where I want the comfort of having a relationship but at the same time there are so many new people, it's like being a kid in a candy store you don't know where to start.
Dating in college is so confusing because you don't know what the other person is looking for. We live in a time where the hookup culture runs rampant and no one goes on actual dates anymore. When my parents were in college it was perfectly normal to go on dates with multiple people in one week and no one would think anything of it. No one expected you to have sex with them after it either. Now people just meet up at parties or hang out in each other's room. The hookup culture has sucked the life out of casual dating and sent it six feet under. Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love says to have consummate, or complete, love you must have intimacy, commitment and passion. If you just have passion, that turns into infatuation and fizzles out really quickly. I feel like now relationships either mean just casual hookup buddies or extremely intense relationships. Personally I just want to have fun, but still, hold on to my core values.
Another problem with dating in college is the ambiguity, like what the heck is talking. I don't understand it. The definition that I have pieced together is that it's kind of like pre-dating but you are only "talking" to that one person. To me, it seems like casually dating, but with more pressure and more ambiguity. Also, because of social media and the explosion of texting, I feel like people feel the need to be in constant contact and personally that is a lot and just seems to set you up for getting annoyed with each other. I don't understand the need to be texting and Snapchatting your boyfriend or girlfriend at all times. I think that it can cause an actual face to face communication to suffer. If you guys talk about everything that happens to you as it happens then there is nothing to talk about when you guys see each other. Personally, there is something so special in talking to someone face to face about my day and gratifies me in a way that simply texting them about it doesn't accomplish.
Dating in college is a tricking thing. On one hand, you're thrown into a whole new world filled with hundreds of new people to meet, but on the other hand in a few short years, we are going to be starting our lives, getting real jobs, and starting a family.
