Dating Without Sign-Up and Without Cost

Being single is getting harder It used to be so much easier to find a partner. Back then, dating involved no sign-up and no cost: you talked, got to know each other and got married. Today, finding a partner is no longer that simple. Anyone who wants to find a partner these days is almost forced to turn to an internet platform or an app. On these platforms, what's on offer gets rated, on looks of course, because everyone wants a partner who looks perfect.

Once you've finally made a selection, you may find that you yourself don't look perfect enough to be chosen. An ugly vicious circle. But how did it work back then? How could people already be getting married as teenagers? Was Grandma so much less picky than I am?

Dating Without Sign-Up and Without Cost - The Test

I took a look around one of these dating sites. Why? Because I'm 35 now, and still as far from owning a home, having a child and a husband as I was at 12. And because my grandmother regularly nags me about how long she'd already been married at my age, and that at my age she already had four of her six children. Easy for you to say, I want to answer her. You and your dating without sign-up and without cost. Today I had to comb through the internet for three hours just to avoid going broke over a mere sign-up. But of course I don't say that. I don't tell her about today's difficulties; instead, I listen once again, with a mild smile, to her "how we met" story. And somehow this story makes me sad.

Because it's so beautiful and so simple. A simple "Want to dance with me?", and that was it. They had found each other. My test with the dating site is a lot harder. Acceptable material is hard to find. Either too old or too young, and the rest were too ugly. "Don't be so picky," my grandmother always said. I used to laugh about that. Today, as I sort through man after man, it occurs to me that maybe I really am too picky. I close the window and think over my situation. Dating without sign-up and without cost may not be the worst solution after all.

That's what it comes down to: a very simple conversation to get to know each other. Just like Grandma and Grandpa back then. I sit in a bar and look over the goods. The selection isn't that bad at all. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just walk over and say: "Want to dance with me?"