The Illusion of Dating

I've had several conversations with my friends lately about dating. Most of them pretty much hate dating, and this includes guys and girls. I've never been a big fan of dating either. You get all excited about someone the first few dates and then you find out they're not looking for anything serious or they just want to have sex, but you're intention is to find the love of your life. Or if you do make it past the honeymoon phase, you find out that the person is completely different from the person you met when you first started dating. Of course we all like to make good first impressions, and as you get more comfortable with a person, more of your true self is exposed. We may not do all of the romantic things we did on the first date as the relationship grows, but that doesn't mean that the couple should completely stop doing nice things for each other. The guy that was such a gentleman turns into a complete asshole. Or the girl that was so into you just starts dodging your calls because she was only looking for company to help her get over her ex. Or the "I'm not ready for a commitment" phrase pops up. I've used this line myself. Dating should be fun. But what IS dating? Do you date a complete stranger or do you date someone you met through a mutual friend? Do you become friends first? Is it ok to date more than one person? Should the guy pay for everything or go Dutch? Most of the guys I've dated were through mutual friends and yes I expect the man to pay the first couple of dates. You can call me old fashioned but I don't care. I also don't think you have to be friends first, but it can make it easier because you already know the person to a certain degree. But then if it doesn't work out, you risk losing a friend. In the world of dating it seems like no one is ever really on the same page or have the same intentions, so dating just gets exhausting. But you do have to take risks and go through a few bad apples to get to the one you want. So don't give up! Both people involved should define dating and what they want and take it from there. What was your worst dating experience?