Dating past and now

I thought I had a pretty good grip on this whole "what does dating mean" thing.

I thought it was pretty self-explanatory: "dating" is the act of going on "dates," right? The other day, my friends and I were talking (read: extensively gossiping) about an acquaintance and her new boy.

What are you agreeing to when someone asks if you want to "date" them?!

These are all questions we need to have answered if we wish to go forward as INFORMED LOVERS.

I say we were "dating" in the beginning because we were regularly going on dates right off the bat.

They started off as casual, and then things got a little more serious when we became exclusive.

As far as I'm concerned, there are two types of pseudo-relationships you can be in that aren't real, bonafide relationships: You're either "hooking up" (casual booty calls, probably not going anywhere) or you're "dating" (going on dates, getting to know each other, hopefully going somewhere).

I would say my boyfriend and I were "dating" long before we were in a relationship.

Whether you are experiencing your first love or your great love, we have expert interviews and the inside scoop that can help you find your way through the dating and relationship maze.

Of course, life has a cute, charming way of making things unnecessarily complicated, so there are about one million different stages you can undergo within the "hooking up" and "dating" stages.

But overall, odds are you're doing something that falls under one of the two umbrellas.

Find tips on sex and intimacy, being a great boyfriend or girlfriend and managing your relationship through all its highs and lows.

Born Scarlett Ingrid Johansson in Manhattan, New York City on November 22, 1984; Scarlett began acting from a very young age.

For the greater good of humanity, I decided to ask one simple question: When you say you're "dating" someone, what does that mean to you?