Table for One

You’ve watched happily as your friends, one by one, have marched down the aisle and into wedded bliss or have chosen long-term cohabitation. “That’s great for them,” you think. And then in the next instant, “Why am I still single?” runs through your mind.

Maybe it’s because you want to be. Jean Twenge, a psychologist and the author of Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled–and More Miserable–Than Ever Before has been studying the attitudes we have toward relationships and says that we have developed a cultural belief that we don’t need them. Call it a post-modern dilemma—we’ve learned to give ourselves everything we need, and it’s become quite easy to live the single life. According to Twenge, young people today actually disparage the necessity of a significant other (read: it’s so uncool to need someone else.)

Experts agree that finding romance starts with finding yourself—knowing who you are and what you want can be very attractive to a potential partner. But are we really destined to all stay single forever? Tell us what you think! [Tango]