Click, swipe, retweet and like — instantly the world has connected. Really without a choice, our dating lives have become simply that. Long gone are the days where you would sit by the phone waiting for your “crush” to call, or waiting by the locker to see them walk by. Now it’s the mind game of who liked whose picture and why won’t he/she message me back?
It was only a matter of time before the dating game got more complicated. We could blame social Tinder did make things more complicated. Whether or not you would “swipe right” on someone based on their looks only made the game harder. Nobody reads bios anyways and putting a dog in the picture gets extra points.
With looks factoring into the dating game more and more, it’s easy just to tap onto social media, scroll through and pick the person you want. Literally. One of the first things society does when they wake up is open social media and says “I want that one today, but only for today.” Nobody wants to commit longer than the “talking” stage — heaven forbid a personality comes out.
Dating has always been hard and now with the availability of more “options,” thanks to the world wide web, it’s even harder to compete. In a world so connected, it often feels like the population is merely “you.” What do we do about this? I don’t have the answer for that; I’m no dating expert. I merely understand that dating life is hard — especially in college. But, there is hope.
Being able to connect across a variety of mediums has proven to be successful in one area — friendship, the ability to connect with more people like yourself. While the dating game may be hard, making friends is providing more successful results than angling your face for that perfect lighting. Friends are better anyways. Personality is a key factor in these types of relationships and in the long-run they stay around.
But for those who want a more intimate relationship, dating can prevail when someone least expects it. Trying too hard both in the social media world and reality hasn’t proven as successful while not seeking out intimate relationships seems to work. As Kat Williams has put it “you do you boo boo” — working on yourself first can open doors to other relationships.
Go ahead and enjoy yourself while it lasts, work on the things you find important and let the rest fall into place. While it may seem like the dating world is simply just you — it’s not.