By Katrina Jansen-Buciuni, Editor in Chief
It appears the era of guys throwing rocks at your window while blasting corny love music and sweeping you off your feet is over.
The new 21st century of binge watching Netflix and running to Taco Bell together at 2 a.m. is the ‘it’ thing in a relationship. Instead of timelessly staring into each other’s eyes, we would rather send a picture of a drink we just ordered from Starbucks saying “much needed” rather than take the person with you to sit down and get to know each other.
So what does this mean? Has romance died, or is there just a new breed of it?
All in one century we have gone from courtship, to dating, to Snapchat. How different are these things? Listening to stories about dating from my family, I’ve learned that women were taken out on several dates before the couple made anything official. Well, in the everyday life of this society, before you get anywhere close to using that very cautious b-word you must be talking to the person for quite sometime, or the big finish, you must see if the two of you can truly keep a Snapchat streak together.
Romance hasn’t died. It’s changed. The prospect of becoming intimate with someone or taking a step to commitment has become such a difficult thing to conquer because of the device the majority of us bury our faces in.
We were created to become intimate with someone because we crave to be loved. Everyone wants to be loved, we just struggle with the way to show it. We as a generation won’t be able to discover these true emotions because we’re so worried if our ‘companion’ is Snapchatting or messaging another person.
What’s most shocking is that if we actually took a break from our obsession with technology, we would actually be able to discover the amazing people this world has to offer. We live in an age where we don’t actually define relationships. And if there is no label on a relationship, it’s easier for people to run away from one and act like nothing happened rather than ‘admit’ to not having feelings.
I know the ropes of ‘dating’ in our era, so don’t ask to “Netflix and chill” because everyone knows what that means.
If he texts back too fast, do you text back slower to let him know you’re not to eager? What if he asks to hangout? You could pretend like you’re busy and actually have a life, but the sad thing is, you don’t. If he Snapchats you, that automatically means you have to wait at least 10 minutes to open it, so he doesn’t think you’re waiting for it.
The overthought and silly things that run through our head like this are ridiculous. If you like someone, go tell them. If you want to go on a date, I have a very simple answer to that: ask the person out. Did I really just say “Ask them out?” Why, yes, I did. Probably shocking to hear, but the worst that can happen is being told no. So, you will recover and move on because at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work out, something better will come along.