Dating is an important part of growing up. It’s a time for young adults to explore, learn, and build their independence. And because dating can be such an integral experience in the lives of young adults, why not make it as amazing as possible? After all, dating is both fun and exciting.
One of the main reasons why young adults go out on dates is to explore their interests. In dating, one of the goals is to figure out what you’re looking for in a partner and why that type of person would be right for you. It’s important to take some time during your teenage years to figure this out so when it comes time for marriage or settling down with someone else, you’ll know if they are the best match for you.
Why Dating is Important for Young Adults
Dating opens up a world of possibilities. You don’t know what you’re going to find when you go on a date, which makes the experience exciting. Going out on dates can also be challenging because you never know what you’re going to talk about with the person you’re dating. This is why it’s important for young adults to date because the conversations will help open up their world and get them more comfortable talking to different types of people. Below are the other reasons dating is important for young adults:
Learn More About Yourself
You gain insight into what type of person you are attracted to, which helps narrow down the search for finding “the one.” In addition, dating will help you get to know yourself more by trying new things and meeting other people who might not be in your usual circle.
When dating, a lot of time is spent thinking about who you are, such as your personality, why you act in certain ways, etc. This can lead to self-discovery, which is very important because it could lead to finding happiness in your life.
Develop Your Inner Person
You learn more about what makes people tick and why they act the way they do, which can help prevent drama in your life before it starts because you know how to avoid them or handle their behavior. It also teaches you valuable communication skills such as listening, asking probing questions, and knowing how to bring up sensitive topics diplomatically.
Figure Out Your Interests and Strengths
Dating can help you determine what type of things interest you and how compatible your partner is with those interests. This also goes for the opposite- dating is a great way to identify our strengths that our partners don’t share, which might lead us to new hobbies or skills.
Learn More About Relationships
When dating, young adults experience new relationships with different people. This can help them learn what types of relationship dynamics work best for them and why and how they might want their future relationships to be.
Improve Your Self-Esteem
When you go on a date, it can make you feel good about yourself because the person wants to spend time with you. A date is like giving someone an opportunity and making them want to do something for themselves, ultimately boosting their self-esteem.
The Challenges of Dating
Even though dating sounds fun, some people struggle to find the right people to go out with. This is why there are young adults who pay for professional matchmaking services so that they can find the right person to go out with.
Nowadays, applications like Tinder make it easier for young adults to find a date. It’s just like online dating, where you can’t see the person on the other end, but you will know what they look like. The fact that people invest time and effort into looking for people to go out with emphasizes the importance of dating for young adults.
Dating as an Essential Part of Young Adults’ Lives
Young adults need to explore the world and their own potential, and dating is a way to do that. Dating also becomes an essential part of their lives because dating will help them meet the right people who will stay with them and help them grow as individuals.
How To Guide Young Adults on Relationships
Young adults might be ‘adults’ who deserve freedom when it comes to topics like relationships, but some guidance in this area always helps. We often do little to help young people prepare for the complex cycle of love and relationships. Instead of letting them figure out things, older adults should take charge of modeling and striking conversations about dating and relationships.
So, how can we prepare young adults for the world of relationships?
Talk About the Markers of Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships
Many young adults are still unaware of whether their current relationships are healthy or not. They might also be unsure if their feelings of disappointment, criticisms of their partner and worries about their relationship are normal.
Examples of healthy and unhealthy relationships are everywhere. Talk to young adults about examples of such relationships among real couples you know or examples from popular culture. If they are currently in a relationship, ask them if their relationship makes them more or less generous, caring, hopeful and self-respecting. Does the relationship make them depressed or worried? Does it help them grow as a person?
Discuss the Skills Needed to Maintain Healthy Relationships
Maintaining a healthy relationship requires a range of skills, which include effective and honest communications, anger management, joint problem solving and generosity. Healthy relationships also benefit from the ability to look at things from your partner’s perspective, as well as taking a step back to see the relationship in a more wide-angle view.
Discuss with young adults different examples of vibrant and caring romantic relationships. These examples might be friends or relatives who you think have mature relationships.
Be a Romantic Philosopher
There is confusion and a great debate about what love is. Young people often have different interpretations of what “love” is. Since their understandings of love are varied and vague, many of them confuse love with lust, infatuation, obsession or idolization.
Help young adults by exploring with them the concept of love and its many forms. Explain to them what it means when you say that you are in love with someone. Also, convey to them that their definition of ‘love’ and ‘being in love’ could be different from others and that there are no “right” definitions for them. But there are still ways of knowing whether their intense feelings for someone are likely to lead to unhealthy or healthy relationships.
Young adults need to take dating seriously because it’s the best way to learn more about themselves and figure out who they want to be with. As young adults explore dating, they get to build their self-esteem and enjoy life simultaneously.
