Valentines Cay being celebrated by fewer and fewer Americans every year --only 51 % this year. Another sign that love isn't in the air as much as it used to be. Over the last month Armstrong and Getty have been discussing reports about American young people having less and less sex and while this has some obvious positive effects there are signs that the delay in teen sex may be the first indication of a broader withdrawal from physical intimacy that can extend well into adulthood. People disengaging from other actual human relationships all part of the digital divide.
I know during my dating days which went on for years one of the things I enjoyed most was "being in love". The whole idea of romance made life more interesting and more worth living. Romance seems to be going away in the 21st century.
And now it turns out loneliness is as bad for you as smoking. Gina Barreca in the Hartford Courant points out that loneliness has been proven to contribute substantially to mortality from specific diseases and the overall death rate in 2019. Supposedly chronic alone time has the same effect as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Just another reason we--young old and in between-- need to get out there and mix and mingle not to mention the fact if we don't step up our stepping out the human species could be in danger.