Silent Partner
For the pursuit of romance to carry any shame is especially odd in 2025…Instead of just acknowledging that totally commonplace aspiration, though, we romanticize serendipity: People hope that love will fall into their lap so they never need to debase themselves by seeking it…The culture tells us…We should have a partner, but we shouldn’t want one.
Social Media Ruined Romance
open.substack.comwhile having a romantic partner is not a necessity for everyone, having a community is. “I truly believe that hyper-individualism, which is deeply rooted in capitalism, does so much work to trick us into believing that we should feel like we can do everything in life on our own,” maya says, adding that being in a relationship has made them so much... See more
i-D • Unpacking our generational fear of codependency

The problem today’s daters face is that the mass adoption of online dating apps has not only eroded incentives to switch from explore to exploit mode, it has made exploration itself boring and dysfunctional.