I’ve recently had a resurgence on the dating front and it’s got me researching, thinking and talking frequently about the concept of modern day dating.

And things have subtly changed.

I read that just because we have technology doesn’t mean we are allowed to be cold and heartless when it comes to dating. We should still open the car door for ladies and buy them flowers. Hold on. When in the last twenty years has it been fashionable to open the car door for a woman? The only friend I have that did that was ridiculed out of existence. I ignored most of that article.

And what about the mix tape? As a number of sources have pointed out (here and here) it doesn’t even exist any more although I did like the solution to hide a USB key inside a tape so that you can give it to someone.

The whole process of setting up a date has become tortuous. To ring or to text? And ringing now means that you’ve manned up and called them? That sounds far less manly than asking for their number in the first place. And then, as I recently discovered, what do you do when they let the call go through to message bank? Leave a spoken message or fall back to the humble SMS? I don’t even know how people used to organise dates back in the day. You probably had to know where they lived so that you could visit their house. Guys don’t get that until a third date at least these days.

And social media. The whole new ball game. I always ask for a full name so that I can go home and research my new interest. Pretty smart hey! At what point do you add them though? Should I have just gone straight to Facebook and added her directly instead of asking for her number? Is it more manly to Facebook someone than to call? And where does Skype fit into the mix? I’m now stuck in not knowing how many dates is acceptable to go on before adding and admitting that I know where she lives on Facebook.

I’m contemplating that we should just use twitter and keep it all public but it just brings up even more questions.

Is there anything you miss from the old days of dating and romance?