Dating: The Lost Art

I feel like dating is a dying activity. No one dates anymore. It is all about "hanging out". What happened to chivalry? I love old movies when the guy goes to pick the girl up and he has a handful of flowers and a hat with a nice suit on. Knocking on the door and being invited in by her father who interviews him and makes him feel all awkward. Then the girl comes down the stairs in a super cute MODEST dress and takes the flowers and says thank you and then gives them to her mother who puts them in some water and then they leave and go to a "picture show" and are home by 9:00pm. Granted, dating has changed over the years, but the concept of "courtship" has been completely lost in our culture. "Hanging out" has spread like a virus and has taken the place of real meaningful bonds that can be only made by dating. Something I really appreciated about my husband, is that he dated me. We hung out occasionally, but the first time we ever did anything together, it was a date. He picked me up (no flowers unfortunately...but he buys them for me now) and took me out to a hay maze and then to dinner. It was perfect. He continued to date me after that for 6 months. He was a true gentleman. But with the modern day views of dating and gender differences, it has made it almost impossible for anyone to get to know each other like they should. An interesting correlation is the decrease in honest to goodness dating making way for "hanging out", and the increase of divorce rates. I believe that it is partially because of the lack of bonding time that took place prior to the wedding day. Today's world involves a lot of avoidance of the sharing of ideas, feelings, emotions, and so forth. The technology has made it very difficult to cultivate relationships face to face. We are texting, emailing, instant messaging, IMing, skyping, etc. This doesn't allow for any personal connections with others. Then on top of that guys and girls are constantly "hanging out" and aren't dating. There are no boundaries or rules when you are hanging out. There is no structure. There is no closeness that provides a healthy and safe environment for getting to know someone. It is an art that needs to make a come-back. Who knows, a lot of "retro" things are coming back. Maybe dating is one of them.