Anthony D'Ambrosio writes at USA Today that marriage seems like a pretty simple concept — fall in love and share your life together. Our great-grandparents did it, our grandparents followed suit, and for many of us, our parents did it as well. So why is marriage so difficult for the millennial generation?
"You want to know why your grandmother and grandfather just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary? Because they weren't scrolling through Instagram worrying about what John ate for dinner. They weren't on Facebook criticizing others. They weren't on vacation sending Snapchats to their friends." According to D'Ambrosio, we've developed relationships with things, not each other. "Ninety-five percent of the personal conversations you have on a daily basis occur through some type of technology. We've removed human emotion from our relationships, and we've replaced it colorful bubbles," writes D'Ambrosio. "We've forgotten how to communicate yet expect healthy marriages. How is it possible to grow and mature together if we barely speak?"
D'Ambrosio writes that another factor is that our desire for attention outweighs our desire to be loved and that social media has given everyone an opportunity to be famous. "Attention you couldn't dream of getting unless you were celebrity is now a selfie away. Post a picture, and thousands of strangers will like it. Wear less clothing, and guess what? More likes," writes D'Ambrosio.
"If you want to love someone, stop seeking attention from everyone because you'll never be satisfied with the attention from one person." Finally D'Ambrosio says the loss of privacy has contributed to the demise of marriage. "We've invited strangers into our homes and brought them on dates with us. We've shown them our wardrobe, drove with them in our cars, and we even showed them our bathing suits," writes D'Ambrosio. "The world we live in today has put roadblocks in the way of getting there and living a happy life with someone. Some things are in our control, and unfortunately, others are not."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @06:43PM
Don't make kids either. They are as good as marriage when it comes to the law..
Better yet. Demand sterilization or any other means which can't be cheated with or is easy to miss due forgetting etc.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 11 2015, @06:54PM
Yeah, what the article is suggesting is indeed a crock of shit, but that people realize how much of a pain in the ass marriages and kids are is only one contributing factor. Myself and many others grew up with the 'leave it to beaver' ideal all over the media and airwaves while living a very different reality with regard to parents and family.
Also, millenials suck anyway. Fuck 'em!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @07:00PM
It's easy to protect yourself from marriage. But kids are worse if you got any sex drive for attractive women.
What sucks so bad about millennials btw?
(Score: 5, Funny) by GungnirSniper on Saturday April 11 2015, @07:28PM
Millennial females won't sleep with him?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @07:39PM
Perhaps. But I suspect it's more general than that.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @08:32PM
Millennial females also have bigger penises than he has, and heftier scrotums, too.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 11 2015, @11:38PM
My complaint about the millennials, and I'm sure there are some well-mannered exceptions here, is that they are painfully socially oblivious. They do whatever the fuck they want in public and were not raised with manners.
You can accuse me of being the same here, but at least I know how to behave in public, with manners. I'm not a sashaying-everywhere histrionic fuck blasting my whiny, effeminate, Crypto-Christian pop shit loudly on my phone during a bus ride or in the campus library. I can put my phone down for 3 minutes without becoming fidgety, in fact, I leave my phone in my car when out in most social situations. Millennials live in their own little bubbles, only becoming vocal about bullshit manufactured social issues engineered to distract morons, and they are by far the most impotent generation raised in America. Not important, impotent. I'd never thought I'd be saying shit like "get off my lawn!" in my early thirties, but here we are.
They are not completely to blame, although a nice dose of common-sense would make them a hell of a lot more tolerable.
Now, let the hate mail flow, young Padawans!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @08:07AM
Hello! I'm a millenial who listens to classical music, knits while waiting in line, and knows full well our government is doing nothing about us going to hell in a handbasket. Most of my friends hit at least two out of three. Would you like to reconsider your opinion?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:20PM
Not really. Knitting in line is still a form of fidgeting, and shows that you'd rather be in your own world than chat up strangers. Knowing that the government is fucking us is a lot different that doing anything about it, and having witnessed firsthand a couple of protests here, my comment about being impotent was also correct -- the cops showed up to a protest to block the street off to make sure none of the protesters got hurt, and actually to allow them to protest. Half of them turned tail and ran at the first sight of a cop car.
Classical music though - yeah, it's nice.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:44PM
Perhaps most people in every generation is oblivious to what happens? So it's not about generation but paying attention, think and act?
(Score: 1) by dougisfunny on Monday April 13 2015, @05:20AM
Kids these days and their rock and roll music.
It would be one thing, if what you said applied only to millennials rather than everyone.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday April 11 2015, @09:21PM
The only thing I don't like about millenials is that, for some stupid reason, they've brought back beards in a big way.
Other than that, I don't see the problem; they have a much clearer view of the world and reality than the rest of us, on average, and what a crock much of modern society is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @09:26PM
Those are Hipsters you're talking about. They aren't Millennials. They're tail-end Gen X'ers.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday April 11 2015, @08:07PM
It looks like you soon won't need to demand sterilization if you're male; you can just do it yourself. You can already get the big V, but if you don't want to take that step, they've already come out with an extremely effective and easily-reversed male contraceptive, which involves some material injected into the sperm ducts but which can be dissolved later if desired.