dates don't have to be romantic.
yes, you can go on a date with a romantic partner, but dates are simply appointments you keep with other humans that you want to hang out with because they enrich your life.
generationally, this looks different but if you have a solid group of folks in your life who you trust and want to stay connected with, you have to engage in fellowship, and that includes solid dates where you are creating and giving space to share and enjoy an experience together, even if you come at it from different perspectives.
enriching relationships that motivate and stir the soul to action are fleeting in this society. we have parasocial relationships, even with our closest friends and partners. always communicating through a device, getting little life updates, and while that has the benefit of letting you connect better with folks across vast distances, it also has the downside of making you feel like you've done just enough if you've commented an emoji and gone about your day.
try to recall, aside from brunch (which mostly feels performative these days), the last time you went on a date with a friend? what did you do? what did you share or experience together, or about one another?
we've forgotten how to set up dates with our friends, keep the commitment, and stay present during that time. it's starting to feel maladaptive. we need to connect better as a society. we really need to hang out with folks more and have experiences to develop and strengthen bonds, especially across shared values, to preserve how to interact with other humans beyond the device everyone has in their pocket.
folks really need to get off the damn phone.