Single, out-of-college, early-to-mid twenty year olds sit at an awkward crux of the dating world. Having left college, we are no longer surrounded by a cohort of boundless single, like-minded individuals of shared affinities and aspirations. But, we are also not yet at the point of desperation that would necessitate online dating and other “well-intentioned, but thrown in the towel”-type dating services.
Which leaves us in the middle of the two awkwardly treading through the “social scene”.
I use quotation marks, because to be honest, the “social scene” is pretty shitty. Let me expound on its shortcomings, in no particular order.
In actuality, the arenas of the social scene are somewhat limited. You cannot really count plays/concerts/performing as viable places to meet people since the majority of the time is spent in silence. This blows the suck whistle because it is at these venues you are most likely to find people of similar taste and interest. I mean, if they thought enough to come to it, they must have something in common with you.
Rule them out, and the scene, for all intensive purposes, becomes just bars and clubs. Dive bars would be perfect, with their laid back and somewhat personal ambiance, but since you don’t find anyone under 50 or without lyme disease at these bars, you are reduced to clubs and trendy bars, which more fit the mold of club than bar, anyway. Both, atmospherically, are more conducive to having an enjoyable time with people you know than encouraging new-found kinships due to the loud music produced limits on capable conversation. This thereby narrows the courting down to a visual buffet, which, unfortunately, for the majority of people isn’t going to get them far.
The other issue with the “scene” is the people typically encountered. This is a broad generalization, but the people that actively participate in clubs, “ho-ing it up” on a consistent basis, are not the type of person the eager, corporate-ladder climbing, self-advancing type is necessarily going to connect with, that is, of course, if the atmospheric conditions permitted it. The one exception to this is the friend of the wild-childs who you can tell is begrudgingly there only because their friends wanted to go. Per usual, though, supply on these are limited, and even when spotted, it is difficult to avoid being stereotyped yourself as the typical scene-ster by them.
That said…where does it leave the college-educated, twenty something looking for a formidable accompaniment to go? I don’t have that answer.