Are people just naturally gifted with good social skills for dating interactions? Please read more inside

10 points20 commentssubmitted by A_Throwaway_2016 to r/dating_advice

I'm a 24 year old guy from a rust belt city and I've been on a total of 3 dates over the past 4-5 years. None of them have gotten past the fist date.

Conversely I know guys that have gotten much farther, much younger. Hell, maybe it didn't even involve a date. Maybe it was just at a party or something in high school. Back then I was the nerd/geek type, suffering from undiagnosed ADHD and social anxiety which persisted into college. Once I played a club sport in the upper class years and volunteered after college, my confidence rose, but motivation to date was still low.

Now at 24, I feel behind for my age, and the women that are 2-4 years younger can easily pick up on a lack of flirtatious humor or overly platonic banter whether it's on a date or over text. Which is why I don't stand a chance with someone closer to my age.

There are hundred of courses and endless hours of "pickup" and "game fundamentals" to talk to women, but is dating really that unintuitive? And why would I want to pay for knowledge that should be innate? I will never understand how my parents met in their teens in the 1970s... and then ask me why I haven't met anyone, or tease if I'm on my phone all the time because I'm talking to a girlfriend. No, I'm browsing /r/dating_advice wondering why the dating part of your genetics didn't get passed down to ME!

Take the conversation I had on Bumble as an example, as well as this response to see how it could have gone differently. She was already interested. I've never had enough practice to intuitively know dating strategies.

https://imgur.com/a/5tAZUYB/ https://i.imgur.com/Tqjgp13.jpg https://i.imgur.com/it5d5v2.jpg

At the end of the day, it's all mental gymnastics. When Tinder and Bumble are household names, what other options do you have? Sometimes I feel better just sitting here with nobody than getting a headache wondering how to beat the competition, app algorithms, my social circle size, and whether or not approaching a women in public (i.e. grocery store/Starbucks) is a wise idea in the 2020s.