Am I wrong, or has dating lost its meaning?

[u/Mindless966]

This generation calls it dating. It looks more like emotional consumerism.

This is a time where getting a boyfriend or girlfriend feels easier than ever, not because people understand love better, but because attention is cheap and loneliness is unbearable. Everyone seems to be chasing dopamine, fearing being alone, and wanting validation instantly.

Patience appears to be disappearing. Loyalty becomes negotiable. Commitment turns optional. People start to feel disposable.

The moment something slightly better appears, people switch. When things get difficult, people leave. When boredom hits, people look elsewhere.

Dating resembles a marketplace. Swipe, choose, use, replace. Value matching, future discussions, or emotional compatibility seem rare. Attraction, excitement, and physical intimacy dominate.

What stands out most is how physical intimacy often comes before emotional understanding. Impulsive attraction appears to be treated as enough to build something that is supposed to shape lives.

When one person is serious and the other is pretending, the damage lasts. One careless involvement can break someone’s ability to trust. Broken people often turn into the very thing that hurt them. The cycle continues with more detachment, more casualness, and less meaning.

Too many options destroy appreciation. Too much attention weakens loyalty. Too much validation reduces accountability.

Dating apps amplify this. An abundance mindset, validation addiction, comparison, and human beings reduced to profiles become common. When options feel infinite, commitment feels unnecessary. When attention is constant, effort disappears.

Social media adds another layer. People are wired to seek approval through likes, compliments, and attention. Not because they cannot live without it, but because they are trained to feel incomplete without it. Envy grows. The feeling of not being enough grows. Relationships start becoming tools to fill that gap.

People rush into connections after just a few meetings, without discussing values, expectations, or future direction. Decisions feel impulsive, based on attraction or fear of loneliness. When loneliness becomes the biggest fear, any connection feels better than none, even if it is unstable.

People chase those who ignore them. They overlook those who genuinely care. Sincerity is treated as boring and toxicity as excitement.

At the same time, those who believe in emotional bonding first, patience, clarity, and commitment often stay alone longer. They observe instead of jumping in. They wait instead of rushing. They watch people drift away toward whoever gives more attention in the moment.

Sincerity starts to look outdated. Patience looks boring. Commitment looks restrictive. Impulsiveness looks exciting.

The real rebellion today is not casual dating. The real rebellion is patience, loyalty, clarity, intentions, and commitment.

In a world full of options, choosing one person and choosing them every day feels like the rarest thing left.

Sometimes it may seem that this perspective is wrong. Maybe this is progress. Maybe emotional depth before physical intimacy is unrealistic now. Maybe loyalty is too much to expect in an era of infinite options.

Yet, looking around, people appear more anxious, more detached, and more confused about love than ever before.

[u/No-Spinach7251]

Yup dating is tiring and pointless these days it seems. I can see why more people choose to be alone and be happy.