Remember back when your parents met? How did your parents meet, anyway? Mine worked at the same ad agency and had a number of mutual friends. They courted the good old-fashioned way, with phone calls and dinner dates.

Wait a second, though—isn’t that still the way people do it?

What with your iPod in your left hand, your BlackBerry in your right hand, your laptop spread out in front of you, and your cell phone plastered to your ear, it seems a little weird to imagine dating without the technology of today.

But when you think about it, the dating of today is really just the same as the dating of pre-technology. Maybe it’s just because I never have the latest gadgets and I try to avoid logging into my Facebook account whenever possible, but I really don’t think it’s necessary to electronically “poke” my love interest or text “OMG U=SO GR8 LAST NITE!” to my boyfriend’s cell phone. Call me old-fashioned, but I actually find it annoying when my relationship becomes entangled with technology.

There have to be other people out there who feel that way. I mean, yeah, it can be nice to stalk your crush in a nonthreatening way by reading up on the interests they list in an online profile—but wouldn’t it be better to, say, ask that person out for coffee and chat about hobbies over a caramel latté, face to face? Or is that just too much to ask?

Don’t get me wrong—technological advances are definitely great for dating. I feel really good knowing that I can just dial my boyfriend’s cell number whenever I want to talk to him, and it’s very sweet when he sends me e-mails from across the world to let me know that he loves me. But honestly, I’d be just fine without those things, and I have to imagine that everyone else would be, too.

I mean, people still meet in bars and at dances and on public transportation, and not everyone under the sun has a cell phone or even an e-mail address. People are still fundamentally people—with or without the technology, and I’m not going to fall in love with anyone based on romantic text messages.

So, CC readers, I’d like to open it up to you. Technology and dating: a match made in heaven, or just kind of a nuisance?
[Image courtesy of T-ShirtHumor.com.]