12 Things We'd Like To Change About Technology and Dating

By Chiara Atik for HowAboutWe
In a lot of ways, technology has made dating much better: Distances seem smaller, you can communicate throughout the day, you can let the world know you're in a relationship, and you can find dates online (ahem). But with the good comes the bad. Can you imagine how wonderful dating would be if everyone just followed these tech guidelines?
Related: When To Facebook Friend Someone You're Casually Dating

1. If You Ignore A Text, You Have To Ignore All Social Media
You guys. You guys. You can't slyly ignore a text message and then constantly update your twitter or Facebook profile or check into Foursquare or do any other activity that proves you have full use of your faculties, thumbs, and cellphone. Also: BBMs? We KNOW if you read them!


2. Change Your Text Settings
For the love of god, change your text settings so the "Show Preview" function is off, so your texts don't automatically pop up on the screen if your phone is resting on the table between you and whomever you're seeing. You absolutely must do this if you're dating multiple people, if you're texting your friend about your date, or if you have anything embarrassing going on in your life that you do not want your date to accidentally read.

3. Don't Skype In Public
There is nothing worse than being a cafe when someone is skyping their significant other, namely because A) we don't want to listen to their conversation, and B) we don't want to inadvertently BE in the conversation. In the background. Glaring.

Related: The Art Of The Skype Date


4. Stick To One Medium
If you start planning a date via email, don't switch to text message, DM, or FB message. We can't compulsively keep checking all our apps to find out what restaurant we're going to.

5. Don't Act Shady If Your Phone Rings
Phones are supposed to ring, so there's nothing weird about getting a call during a date, glancing at your phone, and then ignoring it. What IS weird is if your phone constantly buzzes and you constantly ignore it without so much as a word, because WHO IS CALLING YOU? HMM?

6. Some People Still Don't Like To Text
Some people think texting is the best thing that ever happened to dating. Some people don't. In deference to the anti-texters, a good old fashioned phone call is still the best way to ask someone out on a first date.

Related: The Worst Thing You Can Do In A New Relationship? Instant Message.

7. Be Kind About Foursquare
If you're Foursquare friends with any recent exes, be cognizant of the fact that they will pretty much be able to piece together what you're doing and who you're seeing by your Foursquare check-ins. This of course is GREAT if you're the first to start dating someone else, but painful if you're not. Do the right thing, and don't check into someone else's apartment until a suitable period of time has passed.

8. WE GET IT: YOU'RE DATING
If you're in a relationship, chances are your friends know you're in a relationship. So you really don't need to constantly write on each other's walls, check in on foursquare together, and tweet at each other WHILE YOU'RE IN THE SAME ROOM. Your friends will hate you.

9. Sometimes People Have Friends On Dating Sites
And you won't know who is friends with whom, and so every time you send an IDENTICAL message to two people, you run the risk of them comparing notes and finding you out.

10. Don't Be TMI
You should never check-in to a sex shop, a waxing parlor, or a gastroenterologist on Foursquare (all things we've actually seen). It's a basic guarantee that no one on your Friend list will ever want to date you.

11.You Don't Have To Change Your Status To "In A Relationship"...
...but you DO have to change it from "Single" if we're dating.

12. No More Than 2 Google Pages Deep Until You're Monogamous
Look, everyone's gonna Google before a first date. But try to restrain yourself to just the first two pages, mmkay?

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The Date Report is the companion blog to HowAboutWe.com, a dating site that makes it fun and easy to go on awesome dates. How it works: 1) Invent fun dates. 2) Ask people out. 3) Do something awesome, together. Sign up for free here.