The unspoken factor in all of this is SEX. I’m a straight guy, and I couldn’t imagine seeing some guy at the store who I think might make a good buddy and say, “Hey, you want to go watch the 49ers game with me at O’Malleys?” Men and women approach each other in the context of a romantic relationship, and that raises the stakes to an extreme level. Plus, each can have a completely different idea of what that romantic relationship should look like. And the idea that we should just start out as friends? Cmon, that’s not what men or women really want. Btw, I have had lots of good female friends. I won’t lie, though. I would have liked to have had a romantic relationship with some of them. But that’s just biology. They were attractive, we got along great, etc., but romance just wasn’t in the cards. In every one of those cases, we met through school, work, or other common social setting. It was natural and organic, and it flowed the way it was supposed to. We didn’t meet with the intention of finding a romantic partner or hookup. With dating apps, or even asking someone out at the gym, that’s exactly the intention. Seems like an impossible situation.