Posted on 12/29/2016 11:31:21 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
In recent years, somewhere between endless Tinder swipes and countless OkCupid matches, the dinner date has fallen by the wayside.
As online dating surges in popularity, few millennials have the time, money, or desire to sit with a stranger over a long meal. Only 7 in 10,000 messages in a recent OkCupid IAC survey suggested “grabbing some dinner” and a somewhat less scientific survey this reporter conducted of several dozen actively dating 20-somethings found that dinner has become a highly taboo first date. Last month, Moody’s Investors Service slashed its operating-profit growth forecast for the restaurant sector. (This appears to complement another trend noted by market researcher NPD Group that suggests 57 percent of meals in the US are eaten alone.)
There’s good reason why people don’t want to sit through a meal with a stranger for an hour, or often longer. One singleton this reporter spoke to called it her “worst nightmare,” and another said the idea of sitting through an unspecified number of hours of food, drinks or dessert makes her anxious. A recent article in Cosmopolitan detailed “Why First-Date Dinners Suck,” listing similar reasons: The date category is antiquated, the time frame of the event is too long if there is no chemistry, and eating is too “intimate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
My homeschooled son asked a few of girls out on a date for dinner and a film. Most did not know how to respond.
He now tells them he will meet them for coffee at the local coffee shop. It brings it to their level. No pressure. He then decides whether to invite them to next plan to do something with him, like snowmobile, or catch a film. He discovered he is dealing with women who only manage in packs. They act like terrified heifers when cut away from the pack.
He now is dating a woman who did not have a pack and seems to stand on her own two feet pretty well.
Kid is going to need to beat them off with a stick, if this sort of thing keeps up.
Most young people and a lot of others can no longer afford to go to restaurants for dinner. It’s just too expensive. Just look at the price of fast food slop joints. So nice restaurants are out of the question for most of them. Same goes for buying homes, affording healthcare, finding good paying jobs, buying new cars, marriage, raising families etc.
Yup. I've posited that Millenials would benefit from a "Business Etiquette 101" class. Lesson One would be "Turn off the cell phone, or better yet, leave it at home".
Follow ups could be "Business Lunches, or how to pretend that you're interested in what people who you dislike, but still need to do business with, are saying". "Flip-Flops? Appropriate for interviews??" and "Cursing at your boss, Ironically Funny or Poor Career Move?"
With a class like that, snowflakes could aspire to something more than 1st shift barista at the local coffee shop.
Agree, and you get to see how the other person treats other people (waiters) or handles adversity (a bad meal, wrong order) or whether they have patience (if you have to wait to be seated or for the meal.
You learn a lot.
I think the USA in on the cusp of a MAJOR reset in our standard of living due to the lack of demand. The only thing inflating is food, insurance & college costs. Take housing. Housing demand is going to plummet as illegals are renters and baby boomers are down sizing or kicking off.
This is a disposable economy. Go to a restaurant. Rare is it that anyone under 35 is there. Sometimes, but rare. I’d say the average age of a patron is easily over 45 anymore.
Yep. In reading the article, one of the women described herself as "Heteroflexible", which is something that I'm not even sure I want to find out what it is.... Guaranteed that even in my younger and wilder days, I'd not have been interested.
Article is a classic case of disgruntled women whining, "No men are interested in me. What's wrong with ALL of them??"
Prob for the best.... :-) I married a smart, independent woman, and it's never, ever been boring.
Yes, they can get involved in a devil’s threesome after a few shots, yet not eat dinner and have a conversation.
I became active in on line dating as a 50 something, after my wife had passed away and I felt ready to do such activities.
Normally the first meeting was getting coffee, or meeting and taking a walk in the park.
Then, if there was mutual interest in more, then that’s when we would move on to dinner dates.
Yes, dinner dates can be expensive, especially for us older men who are seeking out women our own age, who in this age group, tend to have grown up expecting the man to pay.
You really need to meet in person, spend some time together, to see if there’s mutual interest. It should be done before you move on to formal dinner dates, in my opinion. And it can be done inexpensively, such as with a coffee date meeting.
I met numerous women through coffee dates before I met someone whom I became seriously interested in .
Can I add that among my criteria for someone, would be that she is conservative??? I rejected a few women out of hand (sorry ladies) because it was clear to me that their world view was liberal.
But, then again, as a long time participant in Free Republic, conservative values are important to me.
I agree on that point. Dinner dates are for people on their way to being a couple. You have the cost right (at least in my area, DC) about right.
It for the most part does mean that now, but there are some GenXers and Baby Boomers who understand the meaning from years ago when it meant something more innocent.
I was one of those in my yute. Blonde, redhead, brunette, Asian, Latina, White, Negro...even Irish - if the woman was hot, I'd date her. It's a Baskin Robbins world. You should sample all the flavors before settling on a favorite.
Millennials are immature cheapskates.
That’s right. I see the nice eat in restaurants with plenty of older folks while younger folks/couples are rare because they got no money! Same reason why most young folks are not buying new cars or homes. No money.
And they wonder why young folks are not participating in those intimate dinners at nice restaurants?
lol....
When I'm hiring for anything other than entry level people, I always take them to lunch. Good way to find out how they interact in the real world. For instance, it's a *sandwich*. It shouldn't take 20 minutes to agonize over the decision, or quiz the server on how rare the roast beef is, or what the cow's name was.
I had one candidate who I'd made up my mind to hire. Sharp kid. Right out of college. Bright, personable, fit in well with the guys. Lunch was going to be a formality...... until he drained three beers (in an hour), made a pass at the waitress, and was a general boor. That was a bullet dodged.
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