I was having this conversation recently - half the time it appears people aren't sure if this drink, this lunch, this film, this whatever constitutes a "date".

I was having this conversation recently - half the time it appears people aren't sure if this drink, this lunch, this film, this whatever constitutes a "date". Very few of my friends will approach strangers, it's always through mutual friends, parties, etc, and when it's just down to two people it could legitimately be a date or just an instance of everyone hanging out where |everyone| = 2. Things still work out, but traditional dates do appear fairly rare.