The Death of Romance

The Rise of the Romance Slump

The modern disenchantment with romance unfolded slowly, subtly, but still unmistakably. Post-COVID, young people stopped dating as much, and if you talk to them about why, what you hear is exhaustion with the apps—the whole hassle of combing through matches, chatting, finding a mutually convenient time, and then dragging yourself out of the house to meet a total stranger. All of that started to seem less important than seeing friends, caring for family, getting some work done, watching the series that everyone else was talking about. These shifts were made one by one, inside people's heads, and then all of these individual decisions accumulated over time and turned into something new, something which staff writer Faith Hill calls the romance slump.

Financial Independence and the Decline of Marriage

The basic fact of women being more financially independent, women being able to buy houses, and having any career they want has made the idea that you need a man in order to survive just not true anymore. This shift in financial independence has led to a decline in marriage rates, especially among 25-to-34-year-olds. Hill notes that there's also just a shrinking share of young adults who have a steady partner, and in 2019, 42 percent of single adults younger than 40 told Pew Research Center that they'd never been in a committed relationship.

The Toll of Online Dating

Faith Hill's survey and research reveal that the big thing that comes to mind when considering online dating is just the toll that it takes on people. When you're having to set aside time and energy and money to meet strangers, it can be exhausting. The paradox of choice, where people are just swimming in options, is also a factor, but Hill thinks that the toll of online dating is a bigger issue. She notes that people are talking about the distance of the technology making it easier to ghost and people being on bad behavior because of that, kind of a lack of accountability.