Millennials and Generation Z have changed dating culture, leaving Generation X and baby boomers to proclaim that romance is dead.
Although “Fast sex, slow love” may be the new motto, romance is still prevalent.
Pew Research Center established that millennials are people born between 1981-96, and Gen Zers are people born between 1997-2012.
Young adults in these generations are accused of killing many trends, but love is not one of them.
They are doing quite the opposite.
In 2018, USA Today announced young millennial women were almost entirely responsible for the 18% decrease in divorce rates.
They will put a ring on it eventually; they’re just doing it differently than their parents. Instead of “killing” love, they are killing divorce.
Young adult millennials and Gen Zers are too financially conscious and independent to get involved in relationships in their early twenties.
There is barely room for love when they’re stressed, depressed and trying to build a future for themselves.
Love is not dying; it is evolving in order to fit the lives of millennials and Gen Zers.
The millennial term “Fast sex, slow love” was coined by Helen Fisher, an anthropologist who studies romance and is a consultant on the dating app Match.com.
The term best describes the casual and simple millennial attitude toward sex, while also having the cautious attitude toward something serious that can lead to either heartbreak
or marriage.
Millennials and Gen Zers should have the kind of relationships that are low investment and cost beneficial. A committed relationship does not have to be in the equation so soon just because it was for earlier generations.
In 2018, Match.com reported that 40% of young singles need to accept themselves before looking for love, 23% said they put their career first and 20% said they need to reach a certain income rate to search for a relationship.
Millennials and Gen Zers are buying less from industries such as cars and real estate, but it is not from a lack of interest, rather a lack of income.
Economists at the Federal Reserve found that millennials specifically are less well-off than generations when they were young.
College to post-grad young adults are receiving lower earnings, fewer assets and less wealth.
Upcoming generations are at war, fighting to get to a seat in self-completion before they settle down and think about commitment.
The idea of commitment and love should not be the first step to adulthood anymore. The first steps of adulthood should be making it out of college and finding stability in society.
In another article by The New York Times, Fisher wrote about the generations’ dating culture. Along with the millennial and Gen Z long pre-commitment stage, she said that today’s young adults have a lot of time to learn about themselves, fixate their careers and learn how to deal with other partners.
The USA Today article continued to say that since the ’90s, the prevalence of divorce for people under age 45 levels off. Whereas the divorce rates continue for people above the age of 45.
Apart from slow love, there is fast sex and simplicity.
The New York Times reports showed that over half of millennials who said they have had a “friends-with-benefits” relationship said it evolved into a romantic relationship.
A friend with benefits is quite literally a friend, but with sex.
The fact that this kind of relationship often evolves proves that when they are ready, love will happen for the latest generations.
Earlier generations might look away with disgust, but a “friends with benefits” relationship is the type of companionship that millennials and Gen Zers can afford for the time being. In 2018, The Atlantic said that millennials are brought into a ‘social contract’ that says, “Everything will work out, if you first go to college.”
Millennials and Gen Zers are abiding by that ‘social contract,’ taking out student loans and getting a degree at the cost of romance.
Love may be caught in the crossfire, but it is far from dead.
