Hanging out and dating are two very separate things, and it seems like one is winning out in today’s society. Let’s talk about why dating is so important and why it shouldn’t intimidate men and women!
Modern dating culture: hanging out
It seems that dating for Catholics in big cities is a frustrating and difficult experience. After living in DC for five years, and now being in NYC, I see certain common trends, and I imagine such complaints can be heard in other areas of the country as well. I’m definitely interested in finding out so please comment and respond if you have any thoughts to share after reading this article.
In my clinical work I find myself often helping young adults navigate the difficult course of being single and dating. Both men and women alike have complaints about the opposite sex in their groups.
“The guys don’t know how to ask a girl out.” “Women start planning the wedding after you ask for a phone number.” These are the two main complaints I hear, along with their derivations, which contribute to dissension between the sexes in the young adult singles scene.
As I’ve written about in a previous post (A Match Made in Heaven), I met my wife through online dating. Online dating seems to be a last-resort option after fruitless years are spent hoping to accidentally knock over “the one’s” beer at Theology on Tap. I don’t feel the need to defend the normalcy or goodness of online dating, but I do often wonder at our culture’s need for such an industry.
Why did dating use to be so much easier?
One contributive factor to difficulty in dating is the frequency with which men and women “hang out.” It’s too easy and comfortable for guys and girls to hang out with each other all time.
In times past, if a guy wanted to hang out with a girl, he had to ask her out on a date. This came with the possibility for rejection, of course, which meant that a man had to muster up a certain amount of courage.
Since men and women tend to want to spend time with each other, there was a greater frequency of dating. A greater frequency of dating meant less pressure on any one particular match-up, and certainly a different type of expectation from the girl about the guy’s commitment.
“Going steady” was actually a status you attained after “dating” for a certain amount of time. Guys and girls both knew this.
Hanging out blurs the dating lines
Now, however, guys and girls are hanging out all the time. Youth groups, young adult groups, young adult events, and ministries all bring guys and girls together in the faith. I am not judging this sociological change as good or bad, but simply noticing it and wondering aloud if it doesn’t change the way we date.
Some of the ministries even go so far as to disallow dating between its members. In these cases, men are not only not forced to have courage to spend time with a woman, they aren’t allowed to!
I’m sure the ministries that enact this type of policy also have good reason. It is now normal, though, for men and women to spend many hours together socializing well into the night and early morning without needing to make any real effort.
Men and women are made for each other!
We are made to find mates, to get into romantic relationships and do more than “hang out.” The desire for the opposite sex motivates a man to step out of his comfort zone and approach a woman he might like. It motivates a woman to give the man a chance, even though heartbreak is a possibility.
This is the way men and women help each other grow out of adolescence and into adulthood. Self-confidence, risk, and trust in God’s ultimate Providence are all adult qualities that men and women both need to learn.
These qualities are developed in one way through the experience of dating, and I think it is possible that all the “hanging out” is stunting growth in this area.
I’m not advocating a reversal of the sociological trend of hanging out. I am advocating greater awareness of what we have lost in our young-adult culture.
I am also suggesting that maybe instead of fearing what might happen when a guy and girl date, whether in ministry or in general (following the “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” mentality), maybe it would be better to educate men and women on healthy dating practices and escort them into the adult world that they might be missing.
As it stands, online dating is useful and good because it is a community of people that actually state their intentions. This is more than most groups of men and women “hanging out” can say. You submit a profile, and take a risk.
Our (immature) culture avoids risk, but then it also avoids growing up. Maybe with all this hanging out we need to encourage risk and trust in God as well. Men can contribute by facing the fear of rejection, and women can contribute by being a little less available in “hanging out” types of situations.
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