These 10 headlines are everything that is wrong with modern dating culture

by Carly Hoilman

My husband and I have a morning ritual of skimming the internet for the most absurd dating and entertainment articles we can find. We’re not sure what provoked it (probably a combination of morbid curiosity and a warped sense of humor), but it’s led to some interesting insight into modern dating culture.

One of our favorite websites for educating ourselves on this matter is Elite Daily, a popular entertainment news site among urban millennials that touts more than 70 million monthly readers. What we’ve come to observe during our morning skims is Elite Daily’s overwhelming and overt antipathy for long-term, monogamous relationships.

Here is a sample of the types of articles you will find under Elite Daily’s “Dating” section:

1. Men Reveal How Their Attraction To Their Long-Term GF Faded
2. Married Women Admit Why They Wish They Stayed Single
3. 10 Married Men Admit Why They Wish They Were Still Single.
4. Why Not Marrying My Long-Term SO Is The Best Decision We’ve Made
5. 7 Things I Absolutely Love About My Friends With Benefits Situation
6. Things I’d Rather You Buy Me Than An Engagement Ring
7. I Don’t Believe In ‘The One’ And That Makes Me Smart, Not Bitter
8. These Are 9 Realities Nobody Tells You About Marriage, From Married Women
9. I Was Divorced At 24 And This Is Why I Don’t Believe In Marriage
10. All My Friends Are Getting Married And I Can’t Even Commit To Lunch

There are countless other pieces that promote risky sexual behavior, normalize STDs, and promote abortions. After reading these twisted articles, my husband and I always find ourselves wondering if Elite Daily’s monogamy fear-mongering is part of a not-so-subtle ploy to abolish the institution of marriage altogether.

An alternative and more likely hypothesis, however, is that these ED authors — who, according the website, are millennials themselves — genuinely believe that lasting, committed, sacrificial love is either unattainable or undesirable.

Upon reading the pieces above, I noticed a pattern of bitter men and women in their 20s and 30s who got married without having a clue about what marriage entails. I also observed a radical self-absorption and a commonly held belief that it’s your significant other’s job to make you “happy.” Finally, I saw a toxic blend of fear and disillusionment toward the prospect of being fully known (i.e. full, unconditional intimacy) by another.

I don’t have a solution for all of these writers and people, but what I do know is that publications like these only serve to reinforce our culture’s aversion to a uniquely human experience that was once prized above all other goods: true love.

I see an absence of the sort of realism required to press through inevitable challenges that emerge in a long-term, monogamous relationship. But I also see an absence of the romanticism that inspires couples to press onward despite the hiccups, trials, and tribulations.

What I can say after reading material like this is that they do absolutely nothing to cure the ills of modern dating culture. Instead, they make light of it with punchy, clickbait listicles and sarcastic journal entries masquerading as life “advice.”

This generation of prime-age singles doesn’t need another reason to abandon all hope of ever finding a deep, meaningful relationship with a member of the opposite sex. They don’t need another person telling them that loving marriages exist only in imaginations of 1950s screenwriters. What they do need is a reminder that love, marriage, and the family have been around since the dawn of humanity. They need to hear that though bad things happen to good people, to give up on these ideals because they sometimes fail would be to forego the very things that make life not just bearable, but joyous, thrilling, and vibrant.

Carly Hoilman is a Correspondent for Conservative Review. You can follow her on Twitter @CarlyHoilman.

Originally published at www.conservativereview.com.