Times Are A'Changin'

Remember the days of dating when an eager suitor would actually show up on a girl's doorstep if he wanted to get to know her better? He'd come a'calling in person just to ask her if she'd like to go to the hop with him.

Then the telephone became more popular, and face time began its steady decline. Why would a young buck walk or drive all the way to his gal's house when he could just pick up the phone and call her?

Now the interpersonal interaction has become even further diluted with IM, email and text messaging. Quantity of communications may be up, but the quality just isn't what it used to be. And it seems to me there HAVE to be things getting lost in the translation. Like commitment.

It's easy to maintain electronic comm relationships with 5, 6, 10 people—but is that really fair to them? And to us? Are we depriving ourselves of forging deeper, more meaningful relationships with each other?

I for one think it takes a lot of talking to get to know someone. And face-to-face conversation always reveals more about them than anything over a computer or phone line. But I'm only one voice and I don't think I'll be able to shift the trends in the great game of dating. Or maybe I'm not as committed as I could be...otherwise, I'd be telling you this in person...