This is how dating has changed over the years. My grandmother has always told me the very romantic way she met my grandfather: he would wait to see her walking home during his lunch break so he could walk her the rest of the way home, sometimes buying her a soda or milkshake. Pretty soon it was milkshakes and movies every weekend. My other grandmother used to recall the months and months she spent waiting for my grandfather to return from the war so they could get married. Both of these stories I grew up hearing made me dream of having the kind of romance both my grandmothers had in the 1940s. Almost 80 years later, things never seem to be so romantic.
There appears to be a large percentage of people simply desperate for romance. This necessity for true love has been the basis for the development of thousands of dating websites and apps including swipe left or right dating apps. Such websites are typically used by people truly looking for a partner of some kind or at least for a technological romance of some kind. However, dating apps do not have the same connotations. There is a different understood meaning of your intentions when you say “I’m on eHarmony”, than when you say “I’m on Tinder”. Tinder, and other dating apps, tend to be used by a younger crowd of people, making the intentions already a little less romantic.
A majority of college age people are not usually looking for “anything serious”, or, if they are, they pretend not to be to avoid being rejected by individuals who are not. The dating app following has made a name for itself as a casual “hook up” resource. Without casting any judgment on whether that is moral or acceptable, it is, at the very least, not romantic. Although, did dating apps kill romance or did they simply add to its demise? It is the argument of this essay that the latter is true; while dating apps have added to the downfall of romance in recent years, they are entirely responsible.
Is Romance Dead?
Despite dating apps have significantly damaged traditional dating, social media as a whole is also to blame for the decrease of romance in today’s world. Previously, people had to communicate in person, go up to their date’s door, call on the home phone and talk to their suspicious father who happened to answer. Now snapchatting has become a primary conversation method, facetiming is the “I need to see you right now” choice, people receive “I’m here” texts when their date has arrived, and there is no longer a need for the unwanted conversation with her father.
At the tip of their fingers, young people constantly have access to communication and searching methods that past generations did not have. Interactions completed electronically have a way of lowering people’s inhibitions and altering their typical, in-person actions. Simply, people do or say things over the phone or computer that they would not in person. Due to this, people now have access to certain aspects of a relationship, such as sensual pictures or conversations, before a relationship can even be formed.
Additionally, the amount of sensual pictures and videos available online is constantly growing, and the effect of the specific image demonstrated by female models has an extremely hurtful impact on women’s body images. The combination of all of this easily obtainable content and deterization of confidence has essentially softened this society while consistently wearing it down. It is true that the times are ever changing, and the perception of sex and relationships is becoming more casual and less judged by the population. However, the effect that social media and dating apps have had on the new generation of young adults has truly handicapped the hopes and dreams of traditional romance.
This essay is written by the student of the University of Central Florida