Via the Awl:
“After a first date on a Saturday night, if it gets past 11.48am on Monday without a text or call then there’s not much chance of a second outing, a survey has found.” Even better: “The three-day rule might have worked when all we had were landlines, but technology has revolutionised how we date. When everybody takes their mobile phone everywhere, waiting three days to get in touch just makes you look snooty or, worse, like you have run out of credit.”
True story: I was in Germany a while back, talking to a nice young German man about dating and cultural differences.
He said, “The way Americans date is weird.”
I said, “Well yes, but how so?”
He said, “The whole waiting three days until you call rule. Is that REALLY a rule? Do people actually do that? They always do it on TV and it seems weird.”
I said, “I hate when people do that, and I think it’s less common now than it used to be? But yes, some people actually do that. I think they learned it from Swingers, which seems like a bad way to learn anything. They don’t do that here?”
He said, “No, they don’t. I had never heard of it until I was watching American TV. And I have no idea what Swingers is?”
I said, “Don’t worry about Swingers. Anyway, dating in real life isn’t exactly like TV, even in the U.S. where it is indeed super weird. If someone waits three days to call me, I’m going to assume they’re not interested.”
He said, “Ok. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, how accurate is How I Met Your Mother?”