Shooting for the Moon!

[AMJ]

It baffles me that college kids are dating online nowadays. We didn't have online dating when I was in college- that was all of ten long years ago- but dating was so easy! Young single people were everywhere, all you had to do was talk to each other. I'm honestly so worried about your generation, because it seems like none of you know how to talk to each other, because of all the time spent on Facebook or whatever.

 

Anyway, just ask her out! It seems like she likes you. I don't know many women who like coffee dates, and if you don't like coffee, that's all the better reason why it's a bad date idea. Take her to do something you both will enjoy. What things do you like to do? Is there a museum you both would like, or a concert, comedy show, a hike you can go on...think about just doing something you enjoy, and doing something she enjoys, and ask her to go do it. It doesn't have to be special or romantic, it doesn't have to be a big deal. Don't worry about impressing her, if she likes you, she should just like spending time with you. Go bowling, or roller skating. Go get drinks at happy hour. There's always so many fun things to do everywhere in a college town, just go have fun!

 

College dating should not be this stressful. The guy I loved the most in college, is the guy who accidentally spilled an entire pitcher of beer on me one night. He also accidentally ran his bike into mine, throwing me onto the ground and gave me the worst bruise I've ever had on my leg. We had a class together and were friends, and just used to hang out like people in college do. Don't stress about it so much.

[Mannibalector]

^Well first of all, ten years ago was only 2006. I'm pretty sure online dating has been around longer than that. I mean like, Windows XP was released in 2001. But anyway, dating is indeed easy, but only if you have the right personality. Pretty much everybody I know has had at least one relationship. However for those of us who are not outgoing, it's a lot harder than you may think. Online dating has actually been pretty good for me for several reasons: the roughly 10% response rate I got hardened me to rejection, so I no longer feel as bad if someone turns me down. And of course for those who I did talk to and go out with, it gave me some much-needed experience, even if nothing really came of it.

 

I feel like everyone thinks that their generation is the best one. In my opinion, there are good things and bad things about every time period. We're still the same idiots we were when we were dressed in animal skins and lived in caves or whatever. Also for what it's worth, I only started using Facebook a couple years ago, and was born, raised, and educated on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Right now I have neither a TV nor a smart phone. So you can't really blame technology. Some of us just aren't as social as most "normal" people.

 

I wouldn't say I'm stressing out, it's just that I'm not used to this sort of thing. It's like coming to an advanced dancing class without ever having danced before. You aren't quite sure what to do, and you'll probably just end up flailing around.

 

There's always so many fun things to do everywhere in a college town, just go have fun!

 

Haha, not this one so much. I met someone who called it an "abyss of despair."

 

But anyway, this week everyone's just been settling into the new schedule and stuff, so I haven't asked her out yet. I only really caught a couple glimpses of her here and there. Need to find a good time.

 

How is it you tell if someone like you? White walls don't like but if someone did I wouldn't know how to tell?

 

Well I don't understand the second sentence (white walls??? You mean like the old school tires? =p), but I can say that it was pretty easy to tell the few times when girls showed interest. They'd tease me a lot and touch my arm and stuff. Though I imagine people who are more shy wouldn't do things like that.

[AMJ]

^Well first of all, ten years ago was only 2006. I'm pretty sure online dating has been around longer than that. I mean like, Windows XP was released in 2001.

 

But we didn't have smartphones back then. I didn't first try online dating until a few years after college, and the only site then was Match. With smartphones and all these news apps, it's just more common. When I started online dating, it was something embarrassing that people didn't want to admit. Like, I'm some type of loser because I have to resort to online dating to find dates. Now it's become the only way people date, even with younger people.

 

One of my friends explained dating in college like this: it will never be easier to date in your whole life than it is while you're in college. You're exposed to just so many single people all the time, and you're always meeting new people. You make new friends, grow your social circle, and continue to meet new potential people to date.

 

After college, that circle drops off. All of your friends may move to different cities. The only people you interact with are your coworkers. This is a much more limited group of people, plus dating someone at work is tricky for a whole bunch of reasons. Then you just start to get older, people start to get married, and the number of single people you meet starts to dwindle. This is why it blows my mind that people in college use online dating. These are the only few years you have to meet and date people the old fashioned way, which is so much more fun. But if it's working out for you, that's fine too.