Why dating is so hard...

I come to you good people tonight with an empassioned plea from all of us who are currently unattached: please let us hang out with each other without placing expectations on our heads or false hope in our hearts. Allow me to explain.
As you probably well know, I am single. There is only one of me, and there are currently no other significant personages in my life. Now, I don't think that God has it for me to be single (if that was awkward in a grammerical sense, I do apologise) for the rest of my life, but for right now I am content in trying to live the best life I can without anyone in my life in that way. Part of that life is making friends and hanging out/working with a variety of people. In these travails it is inevitable that I will cross paths with members of the opposite sex who also happen to be unencumbored by love's mad symptoms. Now, in English: sometimes I'll spend time with (or talk to) single ladies.
I am mostly talking to married/dating people when I say this, though everyone can fall into this trap. What I am saying is this: just because I talk to a single girl does not mean I am want to date her or she wants to date me!!!!!! This has me irritated enough that I actually just used five more exclamation points than I meant to.
I've talked to other guys I know about this issue (and I assume it is the same for the ladies)(and I'm right, too), and they agree with me. There is little that is as irritating as spending your entire life being asked if you are trying to date the girl you were just talking to. It's even worse when the thought hadn't crossed your mind until someone else plants it there. There are many times where I've spent an evening with a group where there has been one particular young lady who I have 'hit it off with', which for me usually means I'm being the regular goofball that I tend to be, and she finds me amusing so she is laughing at my screwball nature, and we are talking a bit. In my mind, all I'm doing is entertaining her, maybe getting to know her and that is it. Afterwards someone will come up to me and tell me that they think the girl likes me and then ask if I'm going to go for it. Suddenly I don't know what to think. The entire evening will flash by in my head and I will start to question the signifigance of everything that happened, and then I won't know what to think. The next time I see that girl I feel awkward because I don't know exactly what to think anymore. Now I admit that I'm probably a little worse than many in that way, but it is still an irritant even if it doesn't really affect a person in that way.
So let me say this: I'm not spending all of my time and energy trying to impress the ladies and get myself a girlfriend. I'm not a college freshman (ooooh, snap!)(heh, I'm also not particularly hip, cool, or with it)(yay me). Goodness knows it's hard enough being a single person these days, we don't really need to have these extra expectations and worries heaped upon our heads. All I'm asking is to let us be, and to not make assumptions about anything. If I tell you that I'm interested in a girl, then that is an invitation to comment on it, and maybe give me advice or share your observations. Other than that, assume that I'm not interested in any girl I like, even if it looks like the complete opposite is true. Most single people just want to be allowed to be single and to live our lives as we will. At some point most of us will probably get married, but no one wants to be rushed or pressured in to something like that.
Like I said earlier, this seems to a problem for single people caused mostly by married/dating folks, but not solely. I imagine everyone makes the mistake of incorrect assumptions from time to time. I know that I have, and I feel bad every time, especially when it turns that it was true (that the guy liked the girl, or vice versa) but it didn't work out, or I said/did something that made it awkward.
Really, this is a trust issue in some ways. We need to feel like we are trusted to live our own lives without having just this one area meddled with. I honestly feel at times like other people, with the very best of intentions, are trying to push me in certain directions because they don't think I can handle it on my own. That is a bit extreme, really, and it is only on my worst days that I feel quite that dark about the whole issue, but it is a feeling that is there.
Another thing that eliminating this problem would help is the area of gossip. If people don't assume anything about my 'love life', then there is nothing for them to talk about. I haven't ever experienced any problems in this area, but other people have. Someone makes a false assumption and talks to another person, who tells someone else and pretty soon the entire school/church/work place/playground/sports stadium is all atwitter with excitement about this impending relationship, and suddenly the two parties aren't talking to each other because it got too awkward and the story got changed. Take Mike and Val for example. Mike and Val hang out with each other regularly because they both enjoy basketball. One day Tony thinks Mike and Val are spending quite a significant amount of time together. So he tells that to Jerry, who mentions to Jeff that Mike and Val seem to be very interested in each other, who mentions to Cindy that Mike likes Val, who tells Kim that Mike is really in to Val, who tells Val that Mike is all hot and heavy for her. Suddenly Val, who really just liked to talk hoops with Mike and had no other opinion on the guy feels all awkard because she thinks that Mike is more interested in her than in basketball. Maybe she even feels a little angry because she's not sure if Mike even likes basketball or if he is just trying to convince her to date him. The next time she sees him she acts all cold towards him because of this, and this hurts Mike, who really just wants to talk basketball because it is his favourite thing in the world. He gets upset and soon they drift apart with bruised feelings on both sides. And don't say that I'm just making things up, because similar situations have happened quite regularly that I've seen. Of course, that particular story I did just make up, but the point of the story is the same. Making these false assumptions can be harmful, if not just a major irritant.
I've ranted about this long enough. I am sincere in what I say. Allow single people the freedom to be single. Many of us would like to be dating, but we also don't want extra pressure in an already pressure laden area. If you're a friend, then you should trust us to do what we need to do, and if you aren't a friend, then it probably isn't really your business anyway. And if anyone catches me doing what I've railed against, PLEASE call me on it. I hate it when it happens to me, and I would hate it more to do it to others.
For the record, it's okay to ask if we like anyone in general, or anyone in specific. That's not the issue. It's the baseless assumptions that are the problem.