As long as your honest with the people youre dating, whether youre looking for commitment or not, its a perfectly valid state to stay in. Perhaps the reason were all too shy to call a date a date is because of the pre-text that a date has to lead to something, that a date can never be just a date.

Should you call a date a date?

If you call it a date, its a turn off. If you dont call it a date, youre commitment-phobic, shy, disinterested and a bunch of other things. Others suggested avoiding to use the word date could simply be a way of taking the pressure off an initial encounter.

Do you have to explicitly say its a date?

If youre hesitant to add the label to your invitation, ask yourself why? If youre making the invitation ambiguous because youre not sure shell say yes to a date, but you want to get some sort of yes because youre craving her attention in any form, then you definitely must make it clear its a date.

Is it a date or not?

dating is mostly about determining the intentions behind why youre meeting up. If someone wants to hang out, then they are not interested in you romantically. The flirting is a sign that they are thinking of you in that way. If the flirting is present, then its a date.