I’ve been told it’s better to date and see if you are compatible before moving on to sex. Apparently I’m ass backwards.
But can we say that it's wrong? It works for them. Doesn't mean that it works for everyone.
Unless someone has a very strong faith and follows some (in my opinion) misguided doctrine, I don't think there is a right or wrong way to ultimately go about it.
Our previous generations likely followed at least an element of that doctrine, regardless of whether they believed in it or not. Why? Because they grew up being told that's how things were done, but then they grew up and realised it wasn't, and so didn't preach to their children in the same way.
Go back a fair bit further, and I imagine people followed an entirely different set of rules, but it seems only rules implied by religion (as far as I am aware) are the ones that forbid intimacy before wedlock.
I think the concept of meeting someone and getting to know them first is a natural process though. Before technology came along in the manner it has, that's how things were done. People didn't meet for sex (unless they were going into brothels), they simply met, clicked, and then had sex. With these various apps, if you've got the looks and the words to go with them, you can just be looking for sex and you'll most likely get it.
Sometimes people meet for that sole purpose, sometimes as a one-off, sometimes as friends with benefits, but because of the intimacy that's involved, I can imagine that sometimes feelings start to evolve and the two parties are happy enough with each other to become inclusive. Then you get the relationship.
At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with either decision. The only people that say otherwise are those in envy, or via social media (because there's an opinion on everything with that - again, the age of technology where everyone can share what nobody cares about). The only element of social media I despise in this sense, and the attitude that some people take on it is that because it's so widely publicised there's an implication there that you must have sex and that you must have it a lot, and if you don't, there's something wrong with you. That's a bad message to be sending out.