Non-Dating

Did anyone else catch the NYT article The End of Courtship? last Friday?  It's been circulating through my group of friends this week.  We all read it and acknowledged it's absolutely true...at least for us ladies and gentlemen in the city.  Relationships in our world are rarely starting with romantic one on one dinner dates...instead dating has transformed into a confusing world of non-dates and group hangouts that might, a month or two down the road, turn into a traditional relationship. 

While I liked the article as a whole, I thought it took too negative a view on the non-dating culture.  As a non-dater myself, I think there are so many benefits to it and that it leads to relationships with a stronger foundation.  Looking back at the last five guys I've dated, the only two that stuck started out with casual hangouts and non-dates...the three that started with more traditional dates crashed and burned really quickly.

Non-dates are wonderful.  You can invite that guy you're interested in to watch football or come to happy hour with you and your friends.  You can throw together a group of single male and female friends for a night out and see if anyone pairs off.  I think non-dates allow a relationship to develop more organically than traditional one on one dating.  While you're getting to know each other, you're also getting to know if you mesh with each other's lifestyles and groups of friends.  When you do decided to make the switch from non-dating to traditional dating, you have a solid foundation to build off of.

In addition  to the NYT article, BYT also featured a piece on non-dating this week called "Top DC Spots for Non-Committal Hangs (Just Don't Call It a Date)".  It's definitely worth a read as well...their seven rules for non-dating are kinda hilarious/amazing.

I'm curious ladies of the blog world, what do you think about non-dating?  Is it a trend you get behind or do you miss the more traditional stuff?