One2One Report; The $ingle Dollar

ONE2ONE LIVING -- The US has more single adults than any other nation in the world except for China and India. There are now more single head of households than there are married households with children.  Married-couple households – have fallen from nearly 80% in the 1950s to 50.7% today.  Delaying of marriage and changing societal norms has resulted in a tripling of the number of unmarried men and women in their early thirties; from 9% to 30% for men and from 6% to 22% for women within the past three decades.  Nearly 59% of all singles have never married.  85% of all singles will marry at least once in their lifetime – this is a 10% decrease from the 95% of all Americans, who married at least once in the 1950s. DeBeers, the Diamond Trading Company, has created a right-hand ring for professional women to buy their own jewelry without waiting for till marriage. Unmarried America – American Association of Single Persons (AASP) is an organization modeled after American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) which fights for singles right.

Mark Brooks: I took a little more time to read One2One's singles report.  Some handy stats.  Very nice!  Thanks to Mary Spio/One2One Living for compiling it.

Comments

[Fernando Ardenghi]

I had been reading the article “Singles at a Glance – Single But Not Alone” at
http://www.one2onemag.com/new/singles_market_profile.asp

The most important sentences that caught my attention were:
“......
Young singles (under the age of 35) do what they love, and love what they do—they see their careers as an extension of their personality, thus seek out jobs that resonate with their core values and culture; changing jobs as often as they do mates on the journey to find the perfect fit.
......Being single today entails making the best of the life stage, to live a fulfilled life rather than waiting for marriage to complete one. Singles have a thirst for specialized services and simple solutions that provide speed and convenience.
Singles place a higher emphasis on community rather than family, they define family differently; their hangout spots, fitness facilities, favorite websites etc are all included in the definition of their community.
.......
Young singles are fun, educated and introspective thrill-seekers who embrace uniqueness, and enjoy belonging to communities of like-minded individuals. They are willing to pay higher premiums for brands that speak in a tone that they understand.
........
Singles long for a connection with other singles.
Note to marketers: Businesses with useful websites are more attractive to singles; these sites provide a place where experiences can be shared with a community of like-minded people. Singles spend more time online than the general public; they are especially devoted to their favorite sites. According to Jupiter Media Metrics visitors to online dating sites increased by 57% outpacing the 22% overall growth of the Internet.
........
Singles feel more isolated than lonely.
Note to Marketers: Use aspirational themes that reflect community and companionship or joy and happiness ahead. Singles seek more time, satisfying relationships, personal growth, success and community; this does not necessarily translate to a desire to be married. Many products peddle marriage as the ultimate destination – a better approach is presenting loving relationships and companionship, without necessarily implying a family.
.......”

I agree with all the content
and
a great mistake in OnLine Dating / Social Networking sites is:
to believe / to assume that every single want to get married soon.
The article said “a better approach is presenting loving relationships and companionship, without necessarily implying a family” These Single_But_Not_Alone persons are not interested in marriage satisfaction and stability predictors.
In old times marriage was the general rule and being single was the sad exception.
Now, in modern times, being Single_But_Not_Alone is / will be the general rule and being married is an exception, sometimes only a travel to divorce.
Many of these Single_But_Not_Alone persons will not share their bedrooms with other person; they do not tolerate a roommate any more.

At first instance, these singles want to contact persons who could be GOOD FRIENDS.
A FRIEND: a brother/sister you can choose OR a person you can rely on, a reliable person, a predictable person, a person who acts /will act a similar way as you.
You can mostly rely on a person if he/she is predictable. A person whose personality is similar to yours. After contacting a predictable person, a single is able to evaluate if he/she could fall in love with her/him.

Kindest Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]