How was dating different in the 90s, 80s, and 70s? (girlfriend, how to)
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60's: High school - met and dated classmates, friends of friends
70's: College dating - met and dated via mixers, frat parties, and the like
80's: black hole of marriage - no idea what went on!
90's: ditto, but starting to think ahead with advent of internet, decline and fall of marriage, went to some clubs
00's: internet dating - life was good! met lots of great women, met my new and improved wife 2.0
10's: off the market
Interesting, I wouldn't really know, tbh...I was way too young too date in the 1980's, had less than a handful of dates in the 1990's, and didn't really take off in terms of a statistically-significant dating volume until close to and into the 2010's...
And even in the 1960s if you are old enough to remember the dating scene then. I am only 23 and it's certainly a much different dynamic these days with cell phones, Facebook "stalkers" and etc. The difference in virginity rates is overwhelming, of course, and there are certain dating routines and behaviors back then that were commonly understood that are not known anymore. But dating is timeless and I'm sure many of my generation's problems were also experienced by guys who are slightly older. The older you are, the better! Thanks a bunch.
I am 43.
What I think has changed the most in the last 20 years, at least among younger people, is that the so-called "hook up culture" has become the norm, rather than just one option. Don't get me wrong. There was plenty of hooking up going on in the 80's and 90's. However, dating and relationships still dominated. Now, it seems like casual hook ups and FWB is the norm, and people often don't really date or have real relationships until they are in their late 20 and older.
What I think has changed the most in the last 20 years, at least among younger people, is that the so-called "hook up culture" has become the norm, rather than just one option. Don't get me wrong. There was plenty of hooking up going on in the 80's and 90's. However, dating and relationships still dominated. Now, it seems like casual hook ups and FWB is the norm, and people often don't really date or have real relationships until they are in their late 20 and older.
That seems about right. Young people today don't actually go on dates. They "hang out" and "hook up." When I was in college, hooking up didn't mean sex, it meant making out.
Yeah but it wasn't just HIV, it was AIDS=Death and for a while no one was sure how it could be spread. I remember being afraid to french kiss a guy. When one of the guys I had dated got sick and lost a lot of weight I freaked out, but luckily it turned out to be a GI disorder. Dating was more about having fun doing stuff, maybe a little sniff-sniff, looking cool and going out and spending money. Young guys seemd to have plenty of cash, nice cars, took us to expensive restaurants and bought drinks all night. We dressed up and did our hair, went to see live bands, dancing, concerts. It does remind me of my mother reminiscing about the fifties except for the drugs and style of music. I don't recall anyone expecting a hook-up out of nowhere. But I guess that was happening in the seventies, glad I was too young for that hippie free love and disco fevah culture, it seems kind of gross.
In the 80s, hetero people only used condoms for spur of the moment, just met this person sex. Most hetero people never used one ever. Condoms were like morning after pills are now, or even more embarrassing, that you would have to resort to one.
I've heard this was true in England, but condoms were and still are preferred by a good number of people in the US. A lot of ladies don't want to mess up their bodies with hormones, so it's basically a "no glove, no love" policy, and was back then, too, according to inside info from some older lady friends.
Too young to date in the 80's, but I can talk about the 90's. It did require you to be more bold and there wasn't any hiding behind texts, emails, etc. You talked to them on the phone. And even if you didn't want a relationship, it seemed you still had to go on dates to "hook up" as opposed to nowadays, if you just want a fling like that, you only take them around groups of friends to hang out. None of these dating stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dub dub II
That sounds exhausting...
bwahahaha, Hot Tub Time Machine
Jacob: I'm kinda right in the middle of a thing right now, but can I text you later?
Girl at Club: Can you what?
Jacob: Are you online at all?
Girl at Club: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Are you talking about Maine? On the West Coast houses had phones on each floor. I'm told that by the 70's some teenagers had phones in their own room, in addition to the phone in the parents' room and the phone in the kitchen on the main floor. Few people were phone-deprived back then. Now back in the 40's, I imagine that was a 1 phone per household time, In the 1st half of the 20th Century, people had "party lines", meaning a phone line shared by neighbors. So you might pick up the phone to call someone, and the neighbor would be on the line. You had to wait until they were done, or if it was an emergency, ask them to free up the line.
We did not have more than a single phone in our house until the mid-70,'s...and even then definitely no phone in our rooms. Hell I didn't have that luxury until I moved out.
I don't know but from what I've read, heard and even see from the countless movies of the time, getting laid and finding a hot spot to party was pretty easy in the late 70s and early 80s.
People seemed to have more money because that was the last generation that was at the tail end of the wage increases meeting inflation. So with your salary you could go out in a nice hot rod, go to eat and buy a bunch of drinks at the bar without resorting to credit, breaking the bank or living above your means.
Today a lot of the youth go to house parties or dirty dank clubs and bars where the booze is cheaper and only about a third find hurried random sex, the rest leave home empty handed.
I don't want to glorify the times but it seemed like everything was wilder, more vibrant, more open, free and it was probably a lot easier to meet women.
Today everyone is on guard and groups in bars, clubs seem way more cliquish. I think the STDs, HIV, and the conservative administrations put things back into order and literally killed the counter culture movement.
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