Marriage in this generation is not strong and solid, nor taken as seriously as how it once was twenty years ago. It used to be individuals would generally meet, court for a while, get married and see the marriage last many prosperous years. As time passed and technology changed, relationships and marriages are turning into what today’s generation calls “situationships”. This is when two people are together or casually dating one another and they both get all the perks and dealings that comes with being married to that person but without the actual title of marriage itself.
The older generation referred to a situationship as “shacking up” and it was greatly looked down on by those who had values and morals for themselves and the relationship they were establishing. Situationships are mirages, they’re counterfeit experiences and will ultimately cause more problems. Even though situationships are a waste and a false sense of an actual established relationship, I see more people accept being involved with another person and not have anything other than the illusion of it being a relationship.
Seeing a true lack of appreciation and respect for a real relationship and marriage is both disheartening and unfortunate in my opinion. Also, it brings a big sense of contradiction and hypocrisy to me because if you were to get on social media it’s a constant back and forth issue. Shows such as Love & Hip-Hop and other reality shows showcase that it is okay for a woman to be with a man and have all of the things that comes with marriage with him for it to never actually happen. And for the man it shows younger men that’s watching that it’s alright to sell the woman false hope of eventually being with them forever, or convincing her that the bond that the two have is better to have than the title of marriage.
Marriages doesn’t work anymore because there’s no spiritual, mental or physical connection anymore. Men and women have removed human emotion from relationships and that’s all thanks to the boom of social media in recent years. Couples today communicate by via text messaging each other or using other various social media outlets. Very rarely do couples stress the importance of a physical connection in a relationship. Even though sex is an important aspect when it comes to physical connection, it’s not the foundation that lays the groundwork to a successful strong relationship that leads towards marriage. Lack of a mental connection is also a problem and in my opinion that’s how women are mentally played into accepting a platonic relationship and men out of fear of commitment mostly tell the woman whatever she wants to hear without fully committing himself to her.
Even though I was raised to understand and respect all that comes with a true meaningful relationship, I believe, along with others that share the same mentality are stuck in the middle between old fashioned values and social media’s way of communicating and showing interest. That showcases that the true underlining issue on why marriages aren’t strong anymore is the major lack of communication. With this lacking neither the man or the woman communicates their true feelings about one another or even discusses if they are really right for each other. Both will just go through the motions of a situationship until it dies down or the person who has invested their feelings into it deeply gets their heart broken.