Let me start out by saying that if you're a happy couple in love, congratulations! That's awesome for you. However, if you're single and confused about the dating world, so am I.
Yeah, sometimes it's fun being single and doing what you want, but other times you just want that one person to snuggle beside. Whether it's crafting a text to respond to someone without seeming too interested, but to keep the conversation going to trying to pick out the perfect outfit that screams "NOTICE ME" if you see them at a party; nowadays, it's all about playing hard-to-get. It's about the idea that whoever cares less holds all of the power in the relationship. That is just disgusting. Shouldn't it be that both people care the same amount? No. No one wants to be the one to care too much, try too hard or fight for something with no result. Someone who is acting like they don't want anything to do with you looks the exact same as someone who is playing hard-to-get. Honestly, it's nearly impossible to figure out which is which.
Another thing that modern day dating lacks is trust. You can literally keep an eye on anyone through social media. Bae isn't answering your texts? Go on Snapchat. Bae won't tell you where they are? You may be one of those people that knows their iTunes password, so Find My iPhone it is. There is no faith anywhere now and these don't seem like solid relationships to me. It seems almost normal now to give your whole self up just for a possibility.
The only difference between doing something romantic and something creepy is how attractive the other person finds you. Yeah, some people are only looking for sex, but they won't tell you that until after the fact. Honesty isn't mandatory anymore.
"We're talking" means that "Yeah, you can still screw around" and the other person can't get mad because you aren't together-together, which is why so many people are afraid of labels. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to explore and have fun, but there comes a time that you have to get serious about your life. It's scary, but we're in college now. We're grown-ups now. We can't keep acting like a child who doesn't like the toy that they got on Christmas.
We can't change modern dating, obviously, but we just have to get used to it and use it to our advantage. So all that I have left to say is to trust the person that you're dating. Even if they have bad intentions that's on them and yeah, you'll probably get hurt, but there's no lesson learned without an experience.