Well the answer is not that much. I suppose a casual relationship is the nice auntie to the pervy adult dating uncle.
Ultimately they are both up to the same thing – having relationships, having sex, meeting people, seeing them for a while, not seeing them anymore, seeing someone new, ad infinitum, usque ad mortem. And so on.
The major difference here is approach, how it’s represented to the outside world – if at all – and how you conduct yourself generally.
Having sex with many different partners, with no commitment to them, is basically what it’s all about. How you go about that is dependent on what you as a person are comfortable with. In my experience it often comes down to confidence and a little modesty. If you act, talk and look like a painted lady, then as sure as eggs is eggs, you will labelled as one. Have a dynamic, interesting, positive front and you will be assigned a different status, holding par with the great and good of the dating world.
The perception of adult dating has changed a lot in recent times, and it is broadening into mainstream culture, where it is accepted more than ever, that sleeping with many different partners over the course of your life is the norm. Not since ancient Greece have we enjoyed such sexual liberalism. As such, and with a little nous, the dating world really can be your oyster.
One main hurdle to hooking up however, can be the opportunity to hook up itself. Well, fear not, as there’s many an opportunity in the brave new world of the internet. You’re only one click away from finding out what it’s all about.
Still undecided about what adult dating is all about? Here’s an article from the folks over at Berkley.edu to enlighten you some more.
Online dating has shed its stigma as matchmaker for the awkward (Goodwin 1990) to claim a new prominence in the social lives of millions of users. In August 2003 alone, 40 million unique users visited online dating sites in the United States alone, according to U.S. News & World Report — that’s about half the number of single adults in the U.S. Given their prevalence, it seems likely that online dating systems have begun to influence not only individual lives but also cultural notions of love and attraction with their overflowing catalogues of potential partners and their sometimes idiosyncratic choices of personal characteristics to highlight. But despite the incredible number of people using these services, we know little about how users perceive each other and interact through these mediated channels, or how such technologies might affect their selection of partners for dating, sex, and marriage.
