Online dating conveniently provides access to multiple potential partners and this makes the thought of dating different people at once quite enticing. Different people have different opinions about having multiple dates, but if all there is to it is getting to know each other, that shouldn’t be a problem at all. There is hardly any moral question here although dating multiple people at once has its pros and cons, and it all depend on how well you maximise the advantages while navigating around the disadvantages.
Here are the pros and cons you should be ready for if you want to date multiple people at once.
1. It May Come With Some Guilt
Dating multiple people at once can come with guilt. It may seem like some kind of ‘soft cheating.’ Not only might you feel bad about it, the people around you may find it somehow unacceptable which only compounds the guilt. But that’s if you don’t know what you are doing. Make sure you make it clear to yourself what the nature of your interactions is. There is nothing wrong with a pure date in the actual sense of the word. You could have dinner with one person today then go and see a movie with another tomorrow.
2. You Get to Know About Different People in a Short Time
You spend weeks getting to know one person only to find they are not Mr/Miss Right, maybe they are even Mr/Miss Dead Wrong, and so you start dating another. The new person also turns out to be wrong. Repeat. Repeat. How many weeks so far? By getting to know multiple people at once you will increase your chances of meeting the right one in a much shorter time.
3. You Might Lose All Your Options
Some people wouldn’t be welcoming of the idea of being juggled with others, even if things are just in the preliminary stages. If they find out, you may lose your chance to develop a relationship with someone who was otherwise a great partner. Perhaps finding a way of letting them know would make things better, but even so, you risk losing them.
4. You Will Have to Wait Longer Before Getting Intimate
You can’t or at least shouldn’t get sexually intimate with anyone if you are seeing more than one person. It is outright cheating not to mention risky. At this point, all you have to do is try to get to know these people and avoid sex with them. Apart from the fact that you do not know their sexual history, you might also not be the only one they are dating and this exposes you to all sorts of diseases.
5. You Will Be More Confident
Having multiple options to choose from will make you more confident to go after exactly what you want. It is easy to compromise when you seem to have no choice. There is always that fear of whether there’s going to come a deal half as good, even if the current one is not entirely what you want.
6. It’s Easy To Grow Big Headed
At the same time, having too many fish in your pond might make you arrogant and overly picky if you are not careful. It’s easy to let go of otherwise good people just because of one tiny detail, thinking you will find perfection in another when this might all be your fantasies speaking.
7. Get Better Dating Skills
As you mingle with multiple personalities, you will become better at dating. Getting a date is one thing; knowing how to carry yourself, the questions to ask to find out what you need to make a decision can be a different thing altogether.
8. You Risk Becoming a Serial Dater
Hoping from one person to person without the least sense of commitment knowing there is a whole queue of others waiting can make you insensitive. It might all turn into a mindless routine, just another sport with no end in mind.
9. You Risk Developing Feelings for Multiple People
That’s why you have to make it clear to yourself what exactly you are doing: just getting to know people. There is a possible risk of developing feelings for more than one person which will leave you entangled in the cobweb of your own carelessness.
Conclusion
The most important thing is not to lead the other people into thinking that there is something going on. They have to know that you just want to know them.
