Are there Modern Dating “Rules”?

What even are they in a world of dating apps?

Christina Care

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Growing up in the nineties, I absorbed information about dating and relationships from sitcoms. Lighthearted discussion of ‘first date’ rules, and ‘third date’ rules, gave me the notion that people followed a particular way of doing things, for the most part. There was an appropriate time for each step of the dating process, from asking certain questions, to having sex, to meeting family…

But then I grew up, and became an adult, in the 2010s.

In this time, the cutesy sitcom-peddled scenes of chance meetings in coffee shops and whatnot were pretty firmly thrown out the window. Instead, we’ve got more online dating sites and swipe-based apps than you can poke a stick at, each promising a slightly different version of ‘filter out baddies’ and ‘date goodies’. Some claim to have your personality in play, others mess around with existing social networks (via Facebook or similar), and others claim to be exclusive, or cater to very specific kinds of hookup, or promise more ‘serious’ pundits. Amongst all this, it also just so happens that I moved to London in my mid twenties, one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world, with a high degree of people who are single.

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Christina Care

Emerging author, copywriter, editor and digital strategist helping creatives grow their practice. Xoogler.