Eddie McCraryOnce, couples sipped sodas and canoodled on porch swings. Today, dates begin and end via text message. Singles search for soul mates on websites like Match.com, attend speed-dating parties, and troll Facebook for romance. “It’s all about Facebook,” says Caroline Dale, 20, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student.
“Dating is like what going steady was in the ’50s,” adds UTC sociologist Tom Buchanan. In “Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right,” a celebrated 2000 study by the Institute for American Values, authors discovered that college dating had swirled away with the poodle skirt.
Coeds now dally on the marriage path, preferring commitment-free liaisons consisting of almost anything from holding hands to sex. Young people aren’t promiscuous, notes Buchanan. “They’re just waiting longer to get married.” Undergraduates go on to graduate school. Women may focus first on career, then motherhood. More students are deferring courtship until the time is right, he says.
Local singles including Eddie McCrary, 34, manager of Big River Grille, enjoy biking, kayaking, strolling along the Riverwalk and congregating at fashionable eateries like Alleia or the Tremont Tavern. What singles don’t enjoy, says McCrary, is pairing up for tête-à-têtes at tables for two. Formal dating is taking a backseat to communal gatherings. “There’s so much pressure on a date,” he explains. “With a group of friends, you’re more relaxed and you can get to know people a little bit better.”
Collegiates especially prefer tribes to twosomes, adds UTC’s Panhellenic Council President Patti Phillips. “People like to hang out at fraternity houses or go to Amigos for cheap tacos.”