Societal Changes That Have Shifted Personal Relationships

My friends have come to tell me over the years that I have alot of "theories." I can't argue with this, but the label could be better. Theories are essential just your hypothesis of information received or as I call them trends.

The Ever Growing Population of Single Men and Women

This is a trend I have really seen explode over the past couple decades. With the globalization of our world through social media and the internet it has never been easier to be a "free bird." I know more and more people that are traveling the world nomad status or drifting through the country than I've ever seen in my 38 years on the planet. Then again, I wasn't alive for the hippy are in America so maybe we have seen this before.

Then there is the flip side - the super ambitious married too their career type people. Yes, these people have always existed, but the difference I see now is there seems to be less and less people "in the middle." I suppose they do say the middle class has been shrinking for decades, maybe that's what that group is, who knows.

Chasing Your Happiness

Everyone should do what makes them happy. I will never hate on that even if I disagree with what it is. However, happiness has more and more become soley isolated to "me me me." It's the all about me society. Did social media play a part on this? Sure it did - It gave us the outlet to build this tendency, but in the end we as society are the ones that still build it, not social media.

Think about it. Many people spend time trying to impress people they barley know by way of social media. Hey look at me and what I am doing - in hopes of getting likes or positive comments.

I read a quote recently that read to the effect of "there is no easier way to depression than trying to impress people you don't even like"

With this kind of environment and mindset it is difficult for meaningful relationships to be had. Not many will find happiness being strictly someone's backup singer in a relationship.

Back to my point though...

All the above info has led to a more single society. Now I'm not stating whether this is good or bad, that's for your own opinion. It's just the trend I have seen, the traditional relationship has become a thing of the past.

There is some irony in this though - women often complain that chivalry is dead. Uhm, yes it is. It's because society killed it. Not men in specific, society on a whole. It's not something young men see growing up anymore so how can it live on. Additionally, many chivalrous acts would be considered "creepy" by women today, so as much as chivalry was part of traditional relationships, it's just as much becoming a thing of the past as well.

Please notice I have referenced traditional "relationships" not "households." There is a difference as households is that "leave it to beaver" type environment, which I don't expect out of anyone unless that is what makes them happy.

The Cure For Loneliness

What's funny is even though people are more independent than ever and the belief of monogamy is less and less present in our society, many people complain of being lonely at times. The issue I see is they just want a cure for those moments, when in reality it's a package deal. You actually have to deal with another human being as part of your life and yes, as crazy as this sounds make a change or two to your life in order to fit them into it. This isn't plug and play people.

The Remedy?

Enter our furry little friends! Did you know that over 60% of households now own a dog? Did you also know the number of household with a dog roughly 10 years ago was 90 million? Guess how many it is now - 180 million! Yes, the number doubled in the last 10 years.....we could be talking about item/topic and those numbers would be mind boggling.

So yes, based on that data my theory would be that some...not the majority, but a minority of people have dogs to cure their loneliness. It's as close as to plug and play as you can get. Yes, you need to take care off it but it does what you tell it too (if trained properly) and gives you attention when you ask for it. Finding a man or woman that does that, a bit more difficult..hahaha.

With the loneliness cure in effect, why deal with a person I suppose.

Conclusion

Anyway, that was fun. Again, I don't have an opinion whether these are good or bad things. I just see what I see. Hope it was an entertaining read ;-)

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Regards,
Mitchell J
Thanks for the pic pixabay