Before you go on assuming what this article will be about and roll your eyes, I want to let you know that, no this is not going to be a whiney dating post.
I am addressing an issue many of us tend to ignore. We brush it off and pretend like nothing is wrong. We like to say the way our generation and society is behaving is just the new normal. I have read post after post discussing why our generation does not know how to date and respect one another, but nothing changes.
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Before I go on, let me say I am not a romantic. I am not looking for "the one" or some boy to sweep me off my feet in a chivalrous attempt to be a "man". I believe it is okay to split the check on the first date, doors do not need to be held open for me, I don't think everyone is meant to get married, and I think their is more than just one love of your life. My views are a little different, but I stand by them.
We argue that dating is no longer in style anymore because our generation has messed it up. This is absolutely correct. Social media changed the dating game a long time ago and has shaped an entirely new face of relationships. A lot of old fashioned dating styles have gone out the window, that's totally natural. We evolve, not everything is meant to stay the same, even dating.
The issue with modern dating comes into play later when you start talking to a seemingly respectable boy and then five minutes later he expects nudes, because that has become the norm. We avoid the truth at all possible by swiping left, snapping, and saying lines like "no strings attached" to make ourselves appealing. We write in our bios that we are respectful, good people. We hide behind our faces of social media because we are scared our real selves will not live up to these expectations we have built for ourselves. Every gender is at fault for this, it's not an issue of "boys being boys" or girls "asking for it".
We try to cover up our actions by saying we are respectable human beings. We try to bring back old school dating styles once in a while and make sure our Facebook profiles are up to standards. We expect things from each other too soon because that is what we are used to, it is okay to expect that nowadays. These unwritten expectations have influenced so many of our actions today. I am not mad at what our dating world has become, I am upset that we have labeled ourselves to be less. We no longer value each other as humans but as mere faces on a screen.
We may not have the same dating styles that used to be valued so highly, but that is no longer the biggest issue. We no longer need grand gestures of romance. We need downright respect for each other as human beings.
I am not asking for chivalry, I am asking for respect.
