Contrary to the well-known adage that all ages are submissive to love, polls show that young people are rapidly losing interest in relationships.<\/p>\n
Young people are increasingly losing interest in establishing relationships and starting a family, writes Kun Mi Lee, a student at Yale University (USA). In her blog, she spoke about the observations, which began in February 2020, in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. She has a clear understanding of why the so-called generation Z, or zoomers, as well as those who are called millennials (or Y), prefer to avoid serious relationships with the opposite sex.<\/p>\n
Kun Mi Lee, 23, is far from the only one noting changes in mating patterns among her peers.<\/p>\n
For example, among the reasons that the participants of the Global SVP of Insights survey (almost all are student-aged people from the US and the UK, but older respondents were also included in the sample for representativeness) cite as the main reasons why they postpone the start of family life, the first place was taken by completely rational, pragmatic considerations.<\/p>\n
Respondents honestly admitted that they are driven by selfishness and fear of responsibility: living for yourself is much easier and more financially profitable than sharing economic hardships with someone else.<\/p>\n
\nPeople say that they are less and less caught in the trap of romantic expectations and are increasingly aware that it is better to wait for a truly noteworthy partner than to deal with the consequences of a fleeting hobby later, says Julia Arbit, a sociologist from Global SVP of Insights.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Compared to their parents, the company believes, generation Z perceives relationships with the opposite sex not so much as free entertainment bestowed by nature, but as some kind of duty, the fulfillment of which they try (like any duty) to delay as long as possible. In this they are strikingly different from any generation of the twentieth century, when people married and were married often simply because at a certain age social decorum demanded it, says Arielle Cooperberg of the American Council on the Modern Family.<\/p>\n
What else distinguishes the Zetas from even their closest demographic cohort, the millennials, is, according to researchers from Global SVP of Insights, a conscious readiness for a chain of temporary relationships instead of looking for one and a lifetime partner. The concept of swan fidelity to people of this generation is alien, sociologists say.<\/p>\n
The results of studies of the mating behavior of zoomers surprise sociologists not only in the US and the UK. Similar polls conducted, for example, in India (a country with a completely different cultural code) also showed that 66% of respondents do not consider their current relationship to be something long-term. And 70% of young Indians generally experience a negative "attitude towards relationships" if they are built solely on romantic attraction. Only one person out of 10 said that he intended in principle to have a stable relationship somewhere in the future. Similar results were shown by surveys among young Australians.<\/p>\n
Such a coincidence of feelings among young people from different countries, many sociologists explain the influence of the pandemic, which “equalized everyone". The 2000s generation has entered an age of hypersexuality, just as pandemic restrictions have made real-life dating difficult if not impossible. The difficulties caused by social distancing were superimposed on a rapidly acquiring mass psychosis fear of catastrophic climate change, economic turmoil (current and future).<\/p>\n
The general mood prevailing among the youth can be described by the words "every man for himself." In such a panicky attitude there is no place for thoughts about a partner.<\/p>\n
These people are completely fixated on themselves. But not because they are selfish by nature. They understand that their success and happiness depend solely on themselves. From this they conclude that first you need to firmly stand on your own feet in order to be able to take care of someone else, explains Julia Arbit.<\/p>\n
Generation Z can only envy the "hothouse" conditions in which their fathers and grandfathers created their families, when the head of the family from the middle class was able to support both his wife and children on his salary, and even allow himself and them certain excesses. Today, according to the Council on the Modern Family, the image of a 25-year-old "father" with a housewife wife is perceived by peers as something funny at best.<\/p>\n
According to researchers, the generation born at the beginning of the 21st century turned out to be the most insecure in itself and its future generation in history (at least when it comes to the developed countries of the West). This brought to life a phenomenon unheard of in the West by previous generations when, after graduating from university, graduates do not buy their own house on credit, but return from the student hostel to their children's room in their parents' house, which creates additional barriers to communication with partners.<\/p>\n
It's not that the generations of the millennium are more infantilized than the generations of their parents. The trouble is that the bar of consumption standards in the 21st century turned out to be raised to such a height that it became almost impossible for young people to overcome it on the move, sociologist and demographer Alexander Sinelnikov explained this phenomenon.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, people are postponing relationships because of the outpacing rise in housing prices, which for yesterday's students is becoming unaffordable even on credit. Add to this the prejudice prevailing in the West that the holder of a prestigious diploma must live in a prestigious area, drive an expensive car, etc. Millennials objectively cannot meet these unspoken expectations of society and therefore withdraw into themselves.<\/p>\n
Thus, today's youth are increasingly putting off the creation of a family or stable relationships, due to the fact that it takes a university graduate more and more time, compared to previous generations, to achieve the level of economic security that will make it possible to start a family. Family values \u200b\u200bhave faded into the background compared to career values, the expert says.<\/p>\n
The same trend – the constant runaway of consumption standards from being able to meet them – is the main reason for the decline in the birth rate in all countries that have adopted the standard capitalist model of development, Sinelnikov adds.<\/p>\n
A global study by Vice Media Group called Life After Lockdown found that among Gen Z, about 75% have not had a single date since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Since it is still impossible to overcome the “basic instinct”, young people transfer communication with the opposite sex to the virtual world, since social networks provide unlimited opportunities for choosing a partner to their liking without the need for financial costs and other “burdens” accompanying real relationships.<\/p>\n
Virtual dates completely replace real meetings for them, especially since many 20-year-olds still do not have a rich experience of relationships in the real world and, accordingly, they have nothing to compare the advantages or disadvantages of one over another. For people entering adulthood during a pandemic through the Internet, choosing a partner is little different from any other online shopping, social psychologists say.<\/p>\n