No Show Socks, Drinking Milk and Chasing Ping-Pong Balls: How ‘The Ick’ Is Ruining College Dating

Caitlin’s Lifestyle Guest Icks

Caitlin Gallagher is a is a Lifestyle Guest Columnist and third-year student in the ILR school. She can be reached at [email protected]. Even though it may be true that dating apps have made life more difficult for those looking for a partner on campus, the rise of “The Ick” suggests we have brought this problem upon ourselves. This became clearer to me when I spoke to a male friend of mine about the impact the term has had on his dating experience. He said that even though he also thought the online joke was funny at first, it was jarring to have a girl tell him that he had given her “The Ick.” His conduct was not even egregiously offensive – he received this criticism for not speaking loud enough to the waiter when he asked for the check.