As we enter a new year, Laura Reynolds looks at how the dating game differs from previous generations.
Laura Reynolds looks at the freedoms of festive singledom
Join Jason Rose for a peek behind today's door.
Lauren Tabbron writes about the difficulties of spending Christmas away from a loved one.
When you come to university there is a sea of new faces awaiting you, ready to be met and interacted with. If you’re that way inclined, there is an array of potential romantic liaisons waiting to happen. What do you do if the talent pool has dried up? After all, there are only so many people in your seminars. The same faces seem to pop up in Ziggy’s every week. Once you get a bit tired of the group you run in, how can you meet new people?
I say this because I have recently been thinking about dating services, both on- and off-line. A friend has been trying out the world of internet dating to meet some new people ‘in the York area’. Although my boyfriend might be a bit put out, I have been tempted to try out some sites in the name of research.
If you’ve never heard of Craigslist before, it’s a free registration site where you can advertise all kinds of services: but when it comes to dating, there’s no payment involved. I hope. One can register on the sites in the ‘women looking for men’ section, a place for the more relationship-oriented amongst us. For those who are a bit more upfront about their preferences and desires, the ‘casual encounters’ part of the website caters to those who just, frankly, want a bit of sexy time in their lives.
Internet dating is often regarded as one below speed dating on the ladder of desperate and lonely singles, but surely there is something to be gained from something that is so widespread? There seem to be numerous complaints about the nature of modern society, and the way we keep our entire lives online, so why not dating? The plethora of internet dating sites available means they’re a lucrative and popular way of trying to find a new partner: but is that just a damning indictment on the nature of modern single life?
I think we need to free internet dating from the shackles of the first-half-of-Bridget-Jones fear. Why should it be desperate and sad to try and meet new people? Most people see internet dating, speed dating and all the ‘set-up’ dating scenarios as the preserve of middle-aged women, but does that make it acceptable for us as students to put ourselves out there? You never know, you might actually meet someone and be able to be interested in them romantically without having to have a ton of Dutch courage beforehand. You might even remember your ‘first date’ the next day.
If we’re honest though, I think the students’ favourite method of blind dating is going to be the kind caused by beer goggles.
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