Dating is an activity that most college age students are engaged in or are at least, interested in. Dating is a practice that is influenced by the time period, social conditions and institutional structures that surround people. Previously, the community and church established the dating rules, however, times have now changed thanks to the boom in technology where everything people require to know and get advised on, can be found at the press of the Google button. Previously dating could be said to be in the female’s control since it was often the man coming to her house to pick her up.
The most popular pastimes on dates is dancing and movies. Before the 1920s, going dancing was a group activity but now it has become couple oriented. Cars have also had a huge impact on dating practices. Having a car now enables couples to have more privacy and intimacy. The practice of petting has spread over all the dating couples now than ever and there are even petting parties. This new kind of dating has allowed each person to get to know each other better before they settle in an exclusive relationship. The focus is now on success and popularity without involving emotions. Before this type of dating, formal courting was for the purpose of finding the ‘ideal’ mate.
Feminism has had a big impact on dating rituals. Women are now empowered more than ever to think of themselves not as just a girlfriend/ wife but also as an independent being. Dating has emerged as an activity that is not often regulated by adults as it once had been. There are many explanations for this change, technological advances being one of them.
Sociologist’s point out that the idea of romantic love did not even exist prior to the industrial revolution. These days it has reached a point where a girl can stop seeing a guy because he didn’t text her enough between dates. There are people who have broken up or stopped dating because when they have come face to face, they cannot communicate without a keyboard. However, dating has its limitations since the smile on someone’s face and the twinkle in their eye cannot be seen of felt by text message.
Effective communication is essential to the success of any relationship, but experts are divided on whether technology helps or hinders interpersonal connections. The bottom line is, we are not going to fight technology but let take the positive aspects of it.
To get a male perspective on this, please click link to view my colleague Mitchell’s view on this topic – http://goo.gl/DC4CYb
