An Introduction to Dating through the Decades

As millennials in 2017, we can recognise that fashion trends, names and music taste all manage to resurface and become popular again. For example, your Mum probably owned a pair of disco pants when she was younger (can we bring these back in, btw?) and your Dad actually saw that band you love, live. The rituals of courtship however, have changed completely and the experience of dating differs greatly from that of your Granny and Grampa.  

If we go back to 1896, according to Weigal in her book ‘Labor of Love’, the term dating derived from a grieving man in a newspaper column, as he wept about his girlfriend seeing other men as they were “filling in all the dates” in his girlfriend’s calendar. Two things: 
1. Not many young people read newspapers nowadays.
2. Do any of us own an actual calendar that isn’t on our iPhone or Mac?

This introduces the predominant factor of the evolution: technology.  Millennials (aka Gen Y – born between 1982-2002) are the first generation to have spent the majority of their lives in the digital environment and subsequently, information technology profoundly affects how they live and work.  Old fashioned ways have managed to disappear and the way in which young people now communicate with each other has arguably become superficial, less meaning-full and sometimes dangerous. On the contrary, acceptance among young people of not only the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) but differences in all of us, bodes well for the future. 

Firstly, looking at trends in the 50’s, I will discuss the do’s and don’ts of dating, before addressing the repressive laws and attitudes towards homosexuality.  I will then travel through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s highlighting the progress and differences of dating before arriving at our natural habitat; the digital age.

Hopefully, this blog will give you an insight into how, through the decades, we have reshaped dating for better and for worse.

Next blog will be posted this Wednesday evening, so, come back! (Please) 

Sophie :)