Dating in college: A sea of snapchatting singles

Oh, college. That hormonal, alcohol- and fight song-infused era when the next love of your life might be noshing on cereal one table over.

But gone are the days of bumping into your next crush.

Pass through campus, and you’ll see guys in flip-flops and girls strolling along in their Nike shorts and oversized shirts. They are often peering at a tiny glass screen.

It’s more likely they’ll fall in love there.

Michelle McCloskey, exuberant and often smiling, is single at LSU, as are half of her friends.

“I do have a lot of friends who are like, Oh, I want a boyfriend,'” says the 21-year-old kinesiology major from New Orleans. “But, at the end of it, when we get to cuddle with our friend who just got dumped, we say we are so glad we are single.”

A good first date for the co-ed set?

“Most people go to dinner,” McCloskey says. “That’s the way to win my heart. Offer me food or Yogurtland.”

If you’re in your late teens or early twenties in Baton Rouge, chances are you mob date.

Friendships form, then turn into groups, which is where friends meet friends. That leads to half-knowledge of several people who can then be weeded out.

“You have a two-minute conversation, and I am like, I don’t even know if they remember me,'” McCloskey says.

After the swift introduction, though, there’s Googling and Facebook perusal.

This is followed by Snapchat flirting.

Snapchat users send short videos to one or multiple contacts. The videos can only be seen once, so it’s like we’re back to that archaic time when events only happen in real time, then have to be clasped in your primitive human memory.

There is less incriminating evidence and easily forgotten exchanges.

“It’s things we want to share, but we don’t want anyone to keep it. It’s like texting, but it’s not as official,” McCloskey says. “You can see when that person opened it, and you can see if they wanted to take a screenshot of it.”

Plenty of dates end up being all-nighters, sometimes ending in sex, sometimes not.

“Unless they are really unintelligent, I would think they are using protection,” McCloskey says.

The 2013 Top Masters in Health Care study noted that Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama lead the country for STDs, including gonorrhea and Chlamydia, which are often contracted in the college years.

“Some of my friends say, I am sick of dating around. I want to meet someone and fall in love,'” McCloskey says. “But some of my friends are like, No way. I don’t want to do that until I am 25.'”