Whatever happened to college dating?

In the world of 2009, the word dating is not in the vocabulary of many college students. It's very uncommon for a girl to be asked out on a date from a college male- no longer is the male expected to pick up a female from her house and take her to dinner and a movie. No longer is the male even expected to be the one who initiates the so-called date. These unspoken changes, though every girl talks about them, have made me question whether the traditional game of dating is officially dead.

After interviewing random Towson students about their definition of dating, I found that some students feel that dating isn't officially dead, it's just become more casual. A 21-year-old Towson female senior says, "dating today is a lot more informal, where dinner and movie used to be the norm. Nowadays, meeting a guy for lunch on campus or planning to meet at the bar on the weekend is as close as I've gotten to dating since enrolling in college."

Sad, but true. I have friends in college who have been seeing a guy for over a year and they still don't consider themselves a couple- it's almost as if the term "boyfriend and girlfriend" is too serious and scary for them to admit.

In my opinion, no one wants to put forth the effort into dating anymore- though I know for some students (especially females) this isn't their idea of an ideal relationship. But then again, is there even such thing as an ideal relationship??