THE ECONOMIST – Across America, 41% of women and 50% of men age 25-34 were single in 2023, double over the past 5 decades. From 2010-2022 people living alone rose in 26 of 30 OECD countries. In Europe, each new generation is less likely to be married. The relationship recession is also hitting those looking for a date or casual sex. Younger people are socializing less, dating less, and starting to have sex later in life and having less sex in general (as are most of us). More people feel able to choose to be single now than in the past, when there was far greater social and economic pressure to marry, a great emancipation of the past half-century. In a Pew survey, 62% of single women did not want to date, whereas only 37% of single men felt the same way. A high proportion of unmarried young men is strongly associated with elevated levels of violence and crime. There is some sort of dating-market failure, and society is changing in ways that are making large numbers of singles incompatible.
In Asia, singlehood is growing fastest, especially poor men and highly educated women. New technology fosters pickiness and absorbs time, leaving less for socializing. Time spent streaming, surfing, or gaming even seems to be displacing sex. Brits aged 18-44, have gone from copulating 5x per month in 1990 to 2x a month in 2021.
See full article at The Economist
Mark Brooks: The Economist tells it like it is. Where do we go from here? The mind always drifts to what is more interesting, and nothing is more interesting than your mobile phone, social media, Netflix, etc. Next up: by 2030, your best friend will be an AI. Then, what need will we really have for each other? (rhetorical / sarcastic / worried ! ). Unless we solve ‘the continuity problem’ in online dating in the more distant future (i.e. 2050), governments will step in and make dating/matchmaking an essential public utility. Sounds crazy, but it is a logical solution if private dating/matchmaking companies don’t evolve. People need us, but our incentive base is broken. Justin at Hinge is doing the right thing by developing Overtone. Also, Sync appears to be doing similar to solve the continuity problem, which will then allow is to move into the BIG phase of growth for online dating.