Posted on 10/20/2022 2:54:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The "In The Loop" series Love Life digs into how Americans are dealing with the changing landscape of modern dating. Nearly half of U.S. adults, and a majority of women, say that dating has become harder in the last 10 years or so in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center.
Anna Brown, a researcher who has written extensively about American experiences with dating and related issues for the Pew Research Center, gave Newsy some insight on the statistics.
"Men were more likely to say things like they had trouble approaching people, whereas women were more likely to give reasons, like it was just hard to find someone who was looking for the same type of relationship that they were or it was hard to find someone with kind of common interests," Brown said.
The most cited reasons behind the dating troubles included the challenge of finding someone who is looking for the same type of relationship: Whether it's casual romance or a serious courtship, 53% said this is a major reason. Other reasons included difficulty in approaching people at 46% and trouble finding someone who meets their expectations at 43%.
Those findings were based on data from 2019, and Brown's further research shows things seem to have only gotten worse during the pandemic.
While dating as a whole was regarded as hard by both single men and women, dating has been riskier for women in particular. Most women who identified as single and looking to date — 65% — said they experienced some form of harassment from their dates, such as being touched in a way that made them uncomfortable or rumors being spread about their sexual history.
Awareness surrounding these forms of harassment were heightened thanks to campaigns like the #MeToo movement, but 65% of Americans said that increased focus on sexual harassment and assault has made it harder for men to know how to interact with someone they're on a date with, begging the age-old question: Is chivalry dead?
"Women were far more likely than men to say that it's gotten harder because of risk, so that can be physical risk or emotional risk," Brown said. "Many people said that technology is the reason it's gotten harder. For online dating in particular, people tend to experience more severe forms of harassment."
Over the past decade, dating was already becoming more complicated in an increasingly digital America and the unique challenges that came with the rise of social media and dating apps. But singles have never been put to the test quite like they were during the pandemic.
Many popular dating apps reported a drop in the number of people actively dating, and those who did continue to date took things slower. Dating app data shows many used video calls and text messaging to get to know their match before meeting up.
Factors like a person's willingness to social distance and their COVID-19 vaccination status became a more prominent consideration for many looking for a potential partner, whether it was for the short term or the long run. As the pandemic's public health measures were politicized, it also trickled into dating, which was becoming more political in a post-Trump environment.
"We found that about half of people who have online dated in the last year say that it's been important to them to see someone's political beliefs on their online dating profile, and that is up considerably since 2019," Brown said. "We also found that most of that change was being driven by Democrats, and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say that it's important to them to see that kind of information on someone's profile."
RELATED STORY Reality Shows Are Getting More Real When It Comes To DatingReality Shows Are Getting More Real When It Comes To Dating As pandemic restrictions eased and much of the country received their vaccines, dating began picking up again. Many predicted 2021 would bring a lot of summer romance, with people across the nation trying to make up for lost time.
While that was certainly true for couples, with many ushering in a wedding boom after a year of putting off weddings, that rush of singles people expected to see was closer to a trickle.
After a lonely year of social distancing, many singles who were looking to date reported a desire to do so more purposefully, taking their time to pick partners. This trend was especially true for single Americans under 30, who don't want to risk taking a potentially meaningful connections for granted.
Some of these efforts took on new forms for the singles, with many swearing off dating apps and trying to meet people through friends or organically while out and about.
But others are going even further in their mission to find love, like with the live dating show called "UpDating." It aims to mix comedy with a vulnerable, yet very public search for love. The show is followed by thousands on TikTok, with some videos gaining more than a million likes.
It seems like younger men don’t care about this anymore. And look at Jeff Bezos.
It isn’t that they don’t care. They can’t do anything about it, except not marry at all.
Which is what they are doing.
Most men are absenting themselves from the relationship scene.
So, basically what you are saying is that men are obeying feminist demands?
Jeff Bezos - richest man in the world - left his wife for woman older than his wife for a divorced woman who had two children with her husband, and another out of wedlock with a professional athelete.
They are absenting themselves because there is nothing in it for them, not because they are obeying feminists.
The women are ignoring most men to be a semi-official harem for the top men. When they do date, women limit themselves sexually because they themselves have done it all. They avoid marriage because there is no reward for them there.
In the modern world, for the average man, there is more reward going fishing than there is in being in a relationship.
He’s a messy man.
Nevertheless, they are doing what feminists want.
Not because of the feminists, though.
You can’t expect men to act against their self interest to defy the feminists and be grinded and broken by the system they managed to create.
How is men turning into testosterone-free wimps in their best interest?
I don’t mess with Patriots.win. There is no reasonable way to be seen. I have one post with 3000+ likes, one with 1400+ likes, and the rest are all 10’s, 20’s, maybe a few 70’s.
I left.
They aren’t being testosterone-free wimps for doing what is in their best interest.
Marrying today means having a steam roller move back and forth across their body every single day for their entire lives. Would you do that, just to defy the system.
Do you work in a job that you hate, just to defy the system or did you consider your best options and vacate the job for your best options?
Marrying is no longer the best option for the male and males are responding to the incentives. What would you have them do, lie under a steam roller to defy the system?
Even the most stereotypical masculine male is vacating, because the best is now to not be there.
Men created human society since time immemorial. If you are saying that now they are not strong enough to do that anymore, you are really calling them testosterone-free wimps. Sorry, I don’t buy this whole leftist world view.
Unless we are prepared to wage war to kill 150 million liberals in America, like we did in WWI and WWII over in Europe and elsewhere, there isn’t anything to be done.
If you haven’t picked up a gun and went hunting for the liberals in your area, you are being just as testosterone-free as they.
Like it or not, until we are willing to defeat liberals through blood, there isn’t anything that can be done yet. It has to get worse.
its the "Friends" syndrome and throw in the "barbie" syndrome...
on Friends, young men and women living a dream life with apparently plenty of time and money and the guys are just so "nice"....
the "barbie" syndrome....almost no women look like that except those that get enhancements and enhancements, whether to your face or body need to be redone after a few yrs for your whole dang life....
people have to learn to love and appreciate the boy or girl nextdoor...
the way they used to arrange marriages in reality was not a bad idea....
we need people to be fruitful and multiply, its almost our DUTY to do so....and if it has to be set up beforehand by loving parents, maybe its not a bad idea.
Fixed it.
Jeff Bezos didn’t marry his current partner. If he does marry the wrong kind of woman he will pay for it.
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