Romance has a new meaning!

From hanging out in dark corners to making your relationship status discreet — the concept of dating for a high school student varies from that of a college-goer!
While many high school students agree that dating is top priority while in school, college students disagree. Popular TV sitcoms like Grey’s Anatomy, Hannah Montana, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Not Another High School Show, The OC, Kya Mast Hai Life, Miley Jab Hum Tum and Gossip Girls and many recent teen flicks have all dealt with high school romances. Heated debates about dating in school are doing the rounds on online forums and even at youth hangouts. So what really is the difference?
Explains student Aishwarya Ravichandran, “When you are in school, it is more about peer pressure, than actually wanting to be with someone. Looks always play a major role then. In college we know what we want, so we have the list of ‘What we want in a guy’ pretty much figured.”
Also while in high school sporting an arm-candy is considered cool. “Once you start dating, everyone around you suddenly thinks you are a love guru of sorts. This is because the concept is still nascent here and you’ve only seen it happening in movies. So when you start dating, people gossip about you and soon all your friends get hooked too. So if you are someone who isn’t dating, you are considered a nerd . The pressure is too much,” says Govind Raj, a student.
As opposed to that, college students believe that they learn to say ‘no’ when they come to college. “By the time you reach college, you’ve seen and been through the dating scene in school so you know how to reject a proposal. Also in school we used to go by a lot of stereotypes, like dating a basketball player (like in the High School Musical movie) is the heights of being cool. But in college we look at an individual’s all round personality as opposed to only his looks,” says Shilpa Mathew, president of Jyoti Nivas College.
The dating lingo too changes with time. “You do not think a lewd pass is okay just because he’s oh-so-cute. Also you know how to clearly distinguish between someone who’s serious and someone who’s just playing around,” says student Rachana Raj.


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