When it comes to the dating scene things change quite quickly. In fact, throughout your dating years things have likely changed quite a bit. And when you compare your dating years to your parents dating years … things have changed a whole lot more. But just what dilemmas do you have that your parents never had to deal with? There’s a lot. 

Competing for Attention 

Your parents’ generation didn’t have nearly as many ways to communicate with others. Smartphones, the internet (and more specifically social media) just didn’t exist. That means they didn’t have to compete for attention with every one of their partners family and friends (and even strangers) every moment of the day.  

They didn’t have those alerts and notifications going off all the time that pulled their partner out of the moment and into a virtual world. 

Non-Stop Work 

Another downfall of technology is that far too many bosses and coworkers expect you to be available 24/7. And that takes away from time available to spend with family. Where your parents’ generation worked from 9 to 5 (and maybe sometimes a little overtime), nowadays people are working nearly all day and every day, even weekends and vacations.  

The problem is that it’s so easy to get in touch with people via their smartphones (that they take everywhere). Text messages, phone calls, emails, they can all be seen and answered from literally anywhere in the world. So, employers expect responses or employees feel obligated to respond even if their employer doesn’t expect it. And that takes away from time you and your partner can spend together.  

Dating is definitely more complicated now. But that doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you may need to put in a little more effort to make it work. But the best relationships are worth the extra work.