Transactional

GenZ does not use Tinder and the numbers show it. Combined with the disillusion of the millenials with dating apps, Tinder's numbers are falling off a cliff and RM Brown's last video (which I featured here) expressed in his usual acerbic wit was just about that very phenomenon.

Nothing is as it used to be and the rules of engagement are no longer set. The traditional approach channels have been abandoned and people are not quite sure how to connect on a romantic playing field that eventually always leads towards blunt reality.

It would be too easy to criticize young people and say that they aren't realistic about how life works when we weren't either. The difference was that the structures were in place and yet didn't yield better than a 50/50 shot at success. The generation of my parents put their head down and simply tolerated dysfunction because marriages were far more transactional and women often had little elbow room due to financial and educational constraints which no longer exist and permit them more choosiness. The pressures of religion and societal expectation have also been largely removed.

It will take a while to remake a social order which works a little better but it will never be perfect because they haven't yet found a way to create the perfect human.