Dating In The Digital Age: Keeping First Dates On First Name Basis

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Technology certainly has changed the dating game.

Dating apps speed things up – from an introduction, to a meeting and then moving on. So nowadays, a first date becomes first name only.

"I'm married," Midtown resident Edward Huang told CBS2's Dave Carlin. "But when I was dating, I think that would be unheard of."

He said some of his single friends are like dating machines, who guard their personal information during initial coffee dates that are so often just one and done.

"There's so much public information out there these days that I think it makes perfect sense to have a proportionate amount of relationship before you disclose personal information," said Huang.

"You may not want to give that level of detail about yourself, because you don't want to be Facebook stalked," etiquette expert Thomas Farley, also known as Mister Manners, told Carlin.

He said keeping dates on a first name basis is a trend among millennials.

"That perhaps won't even make it into your phone, so really why do you need the last name?" he said.

But Farley finds that older people see it differently than 20-somethings and would consider it rude to hold back a last name.

Some in the dating world say really get to know them before you get a last name to investigate on the internet, while others say it will always be a case of no last name, no first date.

"I don't think I would meet somebody if they didn't tell me their last name. I think that's a little bit concerning if they don't tell me their last name before I meet them," Upper East Side resident Grace Patterson said.

"You'll end up finding out their last name anyway, so that's usually how I go about it and it's never really been an issue," a man added.

He and others say look at it this way, a last name will always come up for something lasting.