Is dating practice for divorce? Anti-daters say yes, it is. However, I believe that dating, like anything else, is what you make of it. It's a very personal life-style. If a person chooses to hop from relationship to relationship, never seriously committing, never fully happy with his or her partner, that is the person's own decision (albeit it might not lead to the most healthy marriage in the future). On the other hand, there are plenty of people who "date" and have a few serious relationships before entering a completely successful marriage. There is no set war to measure how people go about dating or how it affects someone--it varies for everyone.
There are certain pros and cons for both dating and not, but I personally lean strongly towards the pro-dating arguments. First of all, I think there is truth in the point that dating helps us realize what we would want in a spouse. It is important to know what qualities you want in a partner before committing to a marriage. Secondly, I really like boys and would not want to not date them until I got married. So yeah.
There is no denying that casual "hookups" are prevalent--perhaps too prevalent--in our society. I'm not sure, though, that this has anything to do with dating. They are two entirely different vehicles. As is made clear by Whelan's article on Busted Halo, the majority of people expect nothing after a hookup. Less than 10% anticipate (perhaps naively) a relationship or a even a date. In teenage culture, these two things are certainly viewed entirely differently. Random hook-ups are rather frequent, and generally accepted. Serious dating and relationships are present as well. I honestly don't think either are looked upon negatively, but for many people, one might be much more appealing than the other (or so they say).
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