Quakers and Shakers

Think back. When was the last time you picked up the phone and called a newly-sparked potential love interest?  Though some of you are “phone people,” most of us have realized that a text/facebook message/g-chat message/message via carrier pigeon is much easier. Just like in 7th grade, when you could flirt with Johnny—who looked just like hottie Aaron Carter—over AIM, texting allows you to be your wittiest, cutest, funniest self.

Admit it. You have, at least once in your Penn life, spent an inordinate amount of time responding to or crafting a text.  You’ve run into your roommate’s room, waving your Blackberry above your head, asking him or her to proofread the little ditty.  Is it too flirty/not flirty enough?  Miss U/Miss You/Miss Ya? Which one?!

You’ve probably wasted hours of your life closely reading a text that you’ve received, as if it were a passage out of Othello, scouring for veiled messages and innuendos within the eight-word message. Don’t be ashamed. We’ve all done it.

While texts are fabulous for scheduling a rendez-vous or garnering late night booty, they are by no means a replacement for actual conversation, when getting to know someone. And texts are not the only offenders. One of my friends had been kind of, sort of, semi-seeing a student who, about a month into their “thang” decided to avoid all contact.  Then, 6 months later, Contact-Avoider decided to apologize/confess his love/suggest a rekindling of the relationship. That could have been admirable or even cute, but this poor-excuse-for-a-22-year-old-male made his declaration via Facebook Chat. He didn’t even take the effort to log into AIM. Read more…

Uncategorized dating, penn boys, texting

A girl goes to a party, drinks jungle juice from a large trashcan, meets a boy and goes home with him. Maybe the rendez-vous ends early and she slips away quietly that evening or perhaps she spends the night and has to deal with the glamorous Walk of Shame down Locust the next morning, most likely wearing a pair of heels.

The whole “exchanging of the digits” process is completely avoided and both parties pray to Ben Franklin that they won’t bump into each other on The Walk. However, they do. Because the other is cuter than they remembered, they smile at each other and make a mental note to friend the other one on Facebook (if they can remember each other’s name) and write them a semi-flirty wallpost. He pokes her on Facebook before she has a chance to friend him. She gives a sarcastic response—with sexy undertones, of course—about the ridiculousness of the Facebook Poke. And then, they live happily ever after…

This story isn’t any story, in particular, because it could be any Penn kid’s story.  It may already be yours.  Even more terrifying, it could be the story that your children tell their friends when they’re asked how their parents met.  After 3 years of navigating the Penn dating scene, I have come to a shocking realization: there is no dating scene.  There is no dating. Read more…

Uncategorized dating