Dating Culture is Dead

Look. I know I might come off as a bitter single byu-i student and I understand that
but I have my reasons and I wouldn’t classify myself as bitter either. There’s just a lot of

weird things about dating culture that really doesn’t suit my fancy and I want to get it
out there. So here goes.

First of all dating isn’t casual anymore and if you do date casually congratulations

you’re a special snowflake. Dating is serious and asking someone out is like asking
someone to marry you. Or asking them to have your first born child. Or asking them to
spend eternities with you. I know I’m being dramatic but people are dramatic! You
have to really like someone to ask them on a date or they just think you’re creepy.
People put so much pressure on “dating” these days that if you do ask them out its
crazy, blasphemous, or even just serious. Its annoying because people like me who
aren’t really looking for a serious partner can’t go on any dates for experience. I just
want to have fun and date people but I can’t do that if everybody is going to think I’m
in love with them. Also what if you did ask someone out and they really thought you
liked them? Then they might ask you out again and again and you might be left with
an even bigger problem. You have the great privilege to friendzone someone. We all
know how that goes.

Second of all if you aren’t going on a lot of dates you “just aren’t putting yourself out

there enough!” Which first of all doesn’t even make sense. Like it does i guess. You
have to leave the house and meet people for there to be people to date but so many
people are “putting themselves out there” so much already that “out there” isn’t an
option anymore. It also sets a weird precedent for people. “Oh if I just go outside more
i’ll get dates.” This is sorely not the case. Because strangers won’t ask you out. They
might but the chances are slim because nobody asks anyone out anymore which is
a whole other problem in and of itself. Putting yourself out there is almost a joke.
Especially to more introverted people. There out there is a lot different than more
extroverted peoples out there. There is also no outlined rule or order for out there
that it's really hard to achieve it if you really don’t know how. I hate it when people
tell me to put myself out there more because I am already out there as much as I
can. Which arguably is really not that much but sometimes it's all I can really take.

Third of all. People. Don’t. Ask. Other. People. Out. Anymore. Ever. and its rough

dude let me tell you. Even here in good ol’ Rexburg, Idaho. Maybe even especially so.
Up here at BYU-I Do there is so much pressure to get married. So much pressure to
go on dates. The pressure has almost turned us completely away from it. This is all
not to say that dating doesn’t exist at all anymore I know it does. But hangout culture
is real and it feels like its irreversible. Hang out culture makes our boys, who typically
are responsible for planning, paying for, and asking out girls, complacent. This not
only negatively affects the girls but it affects them as well. It affects their future
fatherliness and husbandliness. Dating helps young adults to practice for being
married. Something that as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day
Saints we are all striving for.

Marriage is something to look forward to. Something that most everyone is at least a

little bit excited for. Dating helps us to become better wifes and better husbands and
yet we have reverted to a culture that doesn’t cultivate it. Hang out culture is really
dumb and it helps no one.