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Week 10 [16.12 - 22.12.2019] Are singles the children of prosperity?


Nowadays, society is moving towards society with a high percentage of singles. Do we have a singles revolution? People choose comfort life - free of excessive control and full of possibilities, rejecting the hardships and toils associated with starting a family.

People decide to be alone because they can afford it. Not so long time ago, marriage was the only way to achieve security and stability. Now everything has changed - technologies, blogs, websites and social media give us the opportunity to have a social life without sharing our private lives.
That topic was also covered by Eric Klinenberg in his book “Going Solo” who said that singles are very good consumers, people investing in self-development, versatile, acquiring new skills, ready for quick changes, building network of contacts, caring of reputation and thus supporting the service sector. What is, from economic point of view, more rational? Being a single or starting a family? This dilemma cannot be resolved, both options may have their pros and cons. Starting a family is not the solution for everyone. Those who choose to live in a different way should not deserve contempt. 

Singles usually decide to be alone due to lack of time and full dedication to work. The singleship will only deepen. It is spreading in developing countries. The trend would only change if unemployment and the costs of lonely life increased to such an extent that people could not afford to be single. But.. this seems impossible. Therefore, it makes no sense to promote or negate being a single. It is simply a fact that will accompany our society in the near and distant future.

  • Have you ever thought about that?
  • Which way will be chosen by you?
  • Do you agree the rate will be still growing?








Comments

1. Yeah, and I don’t agree that it is a matter of prosperity, or choice. Maybe to some extent yes, but I don’t think that most of singles are single because they prefer such a lifestyle. It is just how their life turned out. Finding a wife/husband is not a matter of simple choice – you can’t just decide and get married the next day. Also, I think that remaining single actually is negative, because it makes our country weaker.

2. I don’t reject the idea of life in a relationship. If I stay single it won’t be a choice, but a failure in finding a proper person.

3. I don’t know. I can only assume that it will grow indeed, but not because of prosperity, but cultural changes and impact of internet and social networks which reduce the amount of real social activities.
Kacper Gąsior said…
1. Yes, as there are many singles in our society, I was thinking about it a lot. I agree with you only partially - it is quite convenient, but it's not the only reason people decide to live alone. Sometimes it's just hard to find somebody who you want to spend live with. You need to match in many aspects as it's a very important decision for entire life.

2. I think I won't be a single. I'm just made for a family live and won't feel good being alone.

3. Probably yes. The majority of older people is married. Among younger - no. As older people will die and there will be more and more people of the 'new generation' this rate will grow.
s15385 said…
In the previous years, marriage at the age of 20 was normal and most of people was thinking about it seriously.
Maciej P s16488 said…
Have you ever thought about that?
Which way will be chosen by you?
Do you agree the rate will be still growing?

I've heard about it but i've never been thinking about it. I feel that there is more to it than just economical purpose. I doubt people think "hey i can afford being single therefore i will be". I'd say that for example because of social media we pay more attention to ourselves, our self-improvement, all our new activities that are now accessible, our career-seeking and other things we do drain time that could be spend on getting closer connection with other people. Ofcourse it depends on people how they deal with it and what they need and want in their lives. I agree with tendency but i think that there are a lot of reasons. I think that easy transportation, access to internet, having thousands of friends make us search for that perfect one instead of focusing on people around us.
I don't think it is choice. Quite often it is more about how life goes and who you meet on your way. You can't decide that from tomorrow you are going to be in relationship. On the other hand if you want to stay single but you meet that perfect person, wouldn't you change your mind?
Angelika Dutt said…
I've thought about the current relationship situation many times over. I think there are people who can really only be singles and the percentage of such people has always been, regardless of their material status. But for sure prosperity influences the fact that more people are lonely or live only in very short, shallow relationships. First of all, as mentioned in the post, when people could not afford to live alone because the cost of living was too high, nowadays it is not a problem. In addition, people used to get divorced so often because women didn't work and couldn't afford to live without their husband.
I fully agree that single people are better consumers, usually these people take more care of themselves and care a lot about the opinion of others, so they invest in themselves.

Although I suffer from complete lack of time, I don't like to live alone and I certainly won't want to be alone in the future. I also don't like short, unimportant relationships, so I'm sure I'll try to find someone suitable for a permanent relationship.

Unfortunately, I think the number of single people will continue to grow. Being with someone outside of this happy part consists of a series of sacrifices, compromises and hard work. At a time when everyone wants to live comfortably, more and more people will choose to live alone.

Karol Michalak said…
1. Have you ever thought about that?
Only on topic close to it, not in this particular way.

2. Which way will be chosen by you?
I want to start a family, live a simple life away from city as it is too noisy, fast and depressing.

3. Do you agree the rate will be still growing?
Yes, it is inevitable as our society moves forward, also because of this there will be less and less children and I believe it is natural as our numbers are pretty big.
1. Have you ever thought about that?
No, I never thought about it and never delved into it. I know this trend well, it's been heard for some time that people prefer being single. However, I don't know why this is so, therefore I don't want to speak on a subject on which I don't quite know. Maybe it's because they can really "afford it", or maybe this is how their story and their fate came about. On the other hand, I prefer the 2+1 or 2+0 family diagram, which I will try to achieve in the future.

2. Which way will be chosen by you?
Probably not. Being single would be too lonely for me. I think I would like to start a family and definitely have one child. Or more? I don't know, rather not. It all depends, however, on how my life will go, whether I will find the right person and whether she will want the same as me.

3. Do you agree the rate will be still growing?
Probably yes, it will grow. Nowadays, most chase after money and personal development, which is why people often don't have time to enter into relationships, or raise and take care of children. I think that this way of things will continue, technological progress, organization development and the way they work will only constantly promote such a lifestyle of being single.
Olga Przytula said…

1. Yes, I did. And as my colleagues above, I also can only agree with it partially. I don’t think that being single is a matter of prosperity. I don’t think it is always a choice. When you choose to focus on your career, it is rather obvious that starting a family or creating stable and blooming relationship is a bit unenforceable. We don’t fall in love with people in 3 seconds and we don’t decide if we want to spend our lives with someone from the day to day. Nevertheless, being single is not something that should be decried, but I think it is harder to find happiness in life being single simply because we, as mammals, are also herd animals and strong, long-term bonds are one of our priorities.

2. I don’t think it is something I can be sure about, because you never know where the life is going to take me, but I would like to have a family, kids and “all that kind of stuff”. I don’t have a problem with being single, actually never had. While being single you can undoubtedly spend huge amounts of time for developing yourself, achieving goal after goal in your work and becoming a better person. Nevertheless, I like having a partner by my side, it’s just something that, in my opinion, makes life worth living

3. I have no idea. I guess it is possible that it will be, as our society becomes more and more self-centered, lost in the social-media society full of unrealistic goals and mendacious reality. People are getting caught up in striving for unrealistic goals, money and careers. When you have to focus not only on yourself but also on other members of your family it’s harder to pursue the ‘perfect consumer’ attitude imposed on us by the media and the retailers.
Yubin said…
1.Have you ever thought about that?
This problem is also relatively obvious in my country, many young people in my country can no longer fall in love, just because nowadays house prices are rising and their economic ability can not keep up with their ideals about love and marriage, since they can't afford the material life of the two, instead of long pain, they would rather choose short pain, so they choose to be single.

2.Which way will be chosen by you?
I would rather choose not to be single, have a family and better have children, even if I will be too busy on my career, I will still care my family more. Though being single I would have more time to develope myself, but life is just like so, we always have to learn to choose the balance.

3.Do you agree the rate will be still growing?
At least it will be growing in my country, so many new parents especially who work as technical staffs(996 mode), they almost never have time to spend time with their children even when the children are already 3 years old, some people may prefer to be single after considering this, so I guess the global rate may grow too.
1. I had similar thoughts about that and I’d say that is not all there is. Relationship is not always a choice, sometimes it’s just a matter of luck or social adaptability.
2. You could’ve just asked: “what you will have eaten on this day next year?”. How would I know?! Even if you chose to be single your whole life, it could be easily changed by one fortunate (or unfortunate) event. It is silly to try and predict what will become of you in the future.
3. There is a difference between the singles and the people who have a partner but just don’t hurry with a marriage. While the percent of the singles I cannot predict (although I don't think it will grow as much as to be a significant problem), I think I can say that marriages will become rarer as the people nowadays like to feel more freedom in relationships which influences the number of marriages. On the one hand, I can understand when people are still not sure if they want to spend the whole life with the present partner or they think they want to play around some more. On the other hand, there are a lot of couples that already live together for a long time but still not married - it just shows that these people just don’t see a point in a marriage anymore.
s15385 said…
Thank you for your comment. I agree that we are looking for proper person to spend our life with but sometimes we set our goals too high and after some time it comes out that such person does not exist or we did not give a chance to know someone better and at the first sight, we decide that he/she is not the right person to spend the life with.
s15385 said…
Good point, I would probably change my mind if it came out that it is the right person to spend my life with but to make the dream come true I will have to give a chance to get her closer which is quite often not so easy.
s15385 said…
Yes and it is quite sad and I think that we should start worring about that.
s15385 said…
Definitely, we should look for the balance to have the family and also invest in self-development. Much more companies give possibility to work in more suitable hours and prefer work-life balance and encourange its emplyees to go on holidays
1. No, I haven't thought about it. Usually, I'm not thinking about what's going on around me, instead I'm thinking about what's going on with my life at the given moment

2. In many cases, It's not the thing that you decide about definitively. It's not like "I'm going to be single because...", it's more like "when life gives you lemons, make a lemonade". You never know what life will bring to you.

3. I do agree that the rate will be growing, because people are getting lazy and don't want to leave their house.
Yurii Gevtsi said…
Have you ever thought about that?
No, I didn't think about it, I have long ceased to understand what is happening with this world.

Which way will be chosen by you?
In general, I love loneliness because most people infuriate me, but it only concerns my free time. I have a very negative opinion about modern youth and society as a whole, but sometimes I can meet an adequate person with whom I can talk on different topics and have a really good time.

Do you agree the rate will be still growing?
I don’t know, honestly I don’t give a damn.
Roman Batyuk said…
1. No, I have never thought about it. In my opinion, there always were and there always will be people that want to make a family or that want to be single. However, we are social animals and we need other people too. So technically, single people are not so single because they have friends and relatives. To my mind, this is the choice of everyone and we don't have any rights to offend them.

2. We will see:)

3. As I said before we need to care only about ourselves. And others can do what they want to do, of course, if it is legal.
1. There are many reasons why people choose to be singles. I agree with this, that it is because of prosperity or convenience. One of the reasons may also be a lack of happiness in love or a heartbreak. Increasingly, I meet with the claim that people are easier to live as a single, without duties, without being attached to someone permanently.

2. So far, I'm single and I'm happy with it. I do not declare that I would like to be a single forever I just haven't found the one yet.

3. It is likely that the number of single people will continue to increase. I think it can also be caused by today's rush for money, work 18 hours a day and lack of time for anything else.
Marta Matysik said…
1. Yes, I have. It was after I saw a movie „Szwedzka teoria miłości” and they told there that women using in vitro to have a child because it’s the best way for them (they haven’t time do go on the date). And it is their family and men is presented only as semen donor. The main problem is this family don’t work properly, because people die alone and even the child isn’t interested about his mother (because there is no father) so when someone dies, the neighbors find the body because it smells bad from the apartment. 
I also think that times have changed and the most popular option now is living with our partner without the marriage or being single. Marriage is now just a piece of paper. And it’s good that single can be single and the society accepts it.

2. I like perspective that I can live with my boyfriend without married and we can decide what will be in the future. I’m glad that I don’t have to get married now and I can decide and everybody accepts it.

3. If it increases, it won't increase much, because first of all young people don’t want to get married but they still want to be in a relationship.
1. Have you ever thought about that?

To be honest, no. I haven't thought about this, but I think you are partially right. I think they're a lot of different reasons, why people are single and we can try and study this. Maybe someone will discover something very interesting about this,

2. Which way will be chosen by you?

I would like to live with a girlfriend, who understands me. I don't want to control anyone neither I want to be controlled. I mean, I am not thinking about marriage now and it is great, that we can talk about it and decide what is better for each of us.

3. Do you agree the rate will be still growing?

I think it depends on generations as well. Maybe after some time, there will a new generation with different priorities and the rate will drop drastically. Of course, it could be another way round.
Kristina Moroz said…
I have noticed that tendency. I wouldn't say that family values completely fade but they cease to occupy the first step in person's life. I mean, most people would like to fulfill their potential and don't burden themselves with obligations to another person till they know for sure if this one person is right for them. I think it's very nice that the scope is expanding. But you always need to know when to stop and draw the line.
Have you ever thought about that?
I only thought that while being single all of my dreams can come true as I am independent and it is really a great feeling. But all of us are afraid of loneliness and after some time would like to find someone that can be with them .

Which way will be chosen by you?
After I saw how it is to be with someone , to always have this person that can listen to you or help you in hard times, I would choose this life instead of trying to achevie my dreams while being lonely.

Do you agree the rate will be still growing?
Yes, as people spend more and more time not with others but with themselfs or just by using technology to stay connected instead of doing it in real life.
s15740 said…
1) Yes and no. No, I have not thought about this in such a key you`ve described. But I think about responsibility. About my responsibility that comes as a consequence of my decisions. It affects only me. I`m really not ready to take somebodies responsibility on me. Maybe I`m just a coward… but it seems, that I don`t want to spend money on somebody else except myself. No, I`m not greedy. I just watching on things with widely opened eyes. For example, when I`m experiencing some financial difficulties, they touch only me, and I can deal with them, better or worse, but I`ll deal with them. And when I should to think about somebody, who is touched by that situation too; such complicative situation makes me feel more depressed. And I don’t want to feel such emotion. So, I just decide to be the ONLY ONE who will deal with MY unfavorable situations.
On my opinion, the rate will stabilize and there will be some percent of lone people. Why there will be families too? Because it is the only way to continue the human kind.

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