Don't Hate the Playa....- Is Dating More Than One Person At a Time a Bad Thing?

I have always stuck to the date one at a time theory; but my friends have been encouraging me to date in parallel, or more than one person at a time to "keep my feelings from getting hurt", or "keep my options open". But does that give off a "player" mentality suppose if you have two people who are interested in you because you have the option of picking who you like? I call it the game show mentality; "I don't know Jerry, they all look good to me!" LOL...."I guess I'll go with bachelor number 31!"