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Dating redirects here; for other uses, see Dating (disambiguation) . Courtship or '''dating''' is the process of selecting and attracting a mate for companionship, Sex , Marriage and Sexual Reproduction . DATING AND ALTERNATIVE COURTSHIP CUSTOMS Courtship can be face-to-face dating, Internet Meeting ( Virtual dating), on-line chat, phone conversation, letter-writing, Poetry , songwriting, giving of flowers, gifts, etc. Dating Dating is part of courtship. It is the pre-scheduled, usually exclusive meetings of two people with mutual interest in one another, to Communicate with and to understand each other better via joint participation in social activities during time away from work or school. In Western societies, a date is an occasion when one socializes with a potential Lover or Spouse . In this sense, the purpose of a date is for the people dating to become acquainted and decide whether they want to have a Relationship . During dating, people often explore the following traits in one another:
Usually, if the two parties discover that they have poor or low Compatibility , it signals the end of the relationship. Some recommend that couples continue to have one-to-one exclusive dating with each other after marriage and child-birth, so as to maintain feelings of intimacy. ''Dating'' may be the term describing the relationship of two people attending a date, but other terms are often used. These terms can imply different degrees of Commitment and Monogamy , but with some ambiguity. In the mid- 20th Century , United States Teenager s commonly dated or "went out" with multiple people before "going steady" with just one, but the term "going out" later came to imply an exclusive relationship. Other terms include "seeing" one another and " Pseudo-dating " where the time is spent together, but the prospect of actual romantic relationship may be understood by one or both parties but is never explicitly discussed. TACTICS DURING COURTSHIP
STRUCTURED COURTSHIP In many traditional societies, courtship is a highly structured activity, with well-known rules. In many cultures, courtship is made redundant, or eliminated altogether, by the practice of Arranged Marriage s, where partners are chosen for young people, typically by their parents. In some societies, the parents or community choose potential partners, and then allow limited dating to determine whether the parties are suited. In Japan , there is a type of courtship called Omiai . Parents will hire a matchmaker to provide pictures and Résumé s of potential mates, and if the couple agrees, there will be a formal meeting with the matchmaker and often parents in attendance. The matchmaker and parents will often exert pressure on the couple to decide whether they want to marry or not after only a few dates. COMMERCIAL DATING SERVICES History of commercial dating services Though most people meet their dates at social organizations, in their daily life, or are introduced through friends or relatives, commercial dating agencies emerged strongly, but discreetly, in the Western world after World War II , mostly catering for the 25–44 age group. Newspaper and magazine Personal Ad s also became common. In the last five years, mate-finding and courtship have seen changes due to Online Dating Service s. Telecommunications and computer technologies have developed rapidly since around 1995 , allowing daters the use of home telephones with Answering Machine s – Mobile Phone s – and web-based systems to find prospective partners. " Pre-date s" can take place by telephone or online via instant messaging, e-mail, or even video communication. A disadvantage is that, with no initial personal interview by a traditional dating agency head, Internet daters are free to exaggerate or lie about their characteristics. While the growing popularity of the Internet took some time, now one in five singles is said to look for love on the Web, which has led to a dramatic shift in dating patterns. Research in the United Kingdom suggests that As Of 2004 there were around 150 agencies there, and the market was growing at around 20 percent a year due to, first, the very low entry barriers to setting up a dating site, and secondly, the rising number of single people. However, even academic researchers find it impossible to find precise figures about crucial statistics, such as the Ratio of active daters to the large number of inactive members whom the agency will often wrongly claim as potential partners, and the overall ratio of men to women in an agency's membership. Academic research on traditional pre-Internet agencies suggests that most agencies have far more men than women in their membership. Traditionally, in many societies (including Western societies), men were expected to fill the role of the pursuer. However, the anonymity of the Internet (as well as other factors) has allowed women to take on that role online. A recent study indicated that "women pay to contact men as often as the reverse, which is quite different from behavior in telephone-based dating system {Link without Title} " (from ''Wired'' Magazine ). The trend of singles making a Web connection continues to increase, as the percentage of North American singles who have tried Internet dating has grown from two percent in 1999 to over ten percent today (from Canadian Business , February 2002). More than half of online consumers (53%) know someone who has started a friendship or relationship online, and three-quarters of 18-to-24-year-old online consumers (74%) say they do. There is also some academic evidence that the 18–25 age group has significantly taken up online dating. This growing trend is reflected in the surging popularity of online communities such as Friendster , Facebook , and MySpace , sites which are not directly geared toward dating, but many users nonetheless use to find potential dates or research a new acquaintance to check for availability and compatibility. There is still plenty of room for traditional Matchmaker s to thrive, however, and only time will tell which industry wins out in the end. COURTSHIP IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM Many non-human animal species have mate-selection rituals also referred to as courtship. Animal courtship may involve complicated dances or touching; vocalizations; or displays of beauty or fighting prowess. Most animal courtship occurs out of sight of humans, so it is often the least documented of animal behaviors. Animals whose courtship rituals are well studied include the Bowerbird , whose male builds a "bower" of collected objects, and the Mantis , whose female has been observed to cannibalize her mate during mating. SEE ALSO
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