For those who married young, or never experienced the particular isolation of prolonged singleness, it can be tempting to treat the struggles of modern dating as trivial. Complaints about ghosting, dating apps or awkward first dates are often treated as amusing anxieties of a generation that should simply put down their phones and get on with it. But this misreads the situation entirely.
Statistics and surveys tell one part of the story, but so does lived experience: my own, and that of friends and countless others I have spoken with. Large majorities of men and women say they want meaningful relationships and hope to marry; yet many are barely dating at all. When interest is high but participation is low, it is clear something has gone wrong in the space between desire and action.
