The Rise of Lonely Single Straight Men

[Richie]

A new report has been published stating that the numbers of single, lonely, young and middle aged straight men are on the rise.

The main driver, according to the article, is the rise in standards by women not putting up with emotionally unavailable men with poor relationship skills.

It goes on further to advise that single, child-free women are the happiest group in life.

So I thought this place would be a good place to discuss (I wasn't sure if I should put this in SC or GD)

A couple of links relating to the report:

https://www.boredpanda.com/number-of-lonely-single-men-rise-psychologist-greg-matos/

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/56755/1/lonely-single-men-are-on-the-rise-psychology-today#amp_agsa_csa=49326498&amp_ct=1661118478197&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16611183573487&csi=0

So are they correct?

1) Are women no longer putting up with, what the report states, low standards?

2) Are single children women the happiest cohort all through life?


Or, is there another side to the discussion:

3) Are men choosing to be single due to the potential downsides of relationships (divorce, emotional/psychological abuse etc)

4) Are women's relationship standards getting too high - they insist on a man being excellent at all areas (physical looks, high earner, great domestically and emotionally available/vulnerable yet not a "wimp") - is this a double standard given me are derided for wanting a "hot women that's great in bed and not a ladette"

5) Does being a single man inherently mean you are lonely and depressed by this?

Over to GD....

 

[Richie]

Hmm.... Thread about an increase in single lonely men develops into what men like/dislike physically about women...

Thread delivers...

 

[Richie]

Social media has become very efficient at showing women what they could have won.

Any man resting on his laurels nowadays can expect to lose his kids and 50% of his **** and to find his ex wife shacked up with someone better looking by Christmas.

Perhaps some men are happy to be alone and single given the alternative above. Being in a relationship can be quite risky these days with the risk/reward aspect erring towards risk.

Besides, being alone does not mean being lonely.

 

[Richie]

But many of these suicides, such as in my friends situation (RIP) wasn't because of loneliness was because of having his kids taken away from him by his ex. Or in other cases, men loose their job, get into financial issues so suicide is their only way out.

No it's not. They may see it as their only way out but that's not the same as it being the only way out.

Now your friends kids have no dad because of the selfish actions of said dad.

Suicidal ideation is fine. When you are at your lowest point in life, these thoughts can form and feel quite reasonable. Acting on them is another matter especially when it will affect others e.g. family.

Given the demographic of this forum I can bet that quite a few on here have had serious suicidal thoughts and never carried them out once things are rationalised.


I do agree that male suicide is a national disaster however. Perhaps if the same level of advertising/discussion on this as there is for other demographic's problems, it may lower it.

Instead, the current discussion in the UK is how bad men are and that they must change without identifying the root causes and supporting that change.

 

[Richie]

Is... is this a thing then? :/

Whew what have people become.

Lonely, socially awkward and disenfranchised with real life?

They're not harming anyone so I won't judge them.... They could be out there potentially causing real harm.

No?

 

[Richie]

Is this real or some inside joke I'm not privy to?

If one of my friends told me they were dating an AI I'd have an absolute field day with the amount of urine I could take out of them

And it's attitudes like this that harm men's mental health....

 

[Richie]

I'm not the one being unhealthy dating themselves. It's weird. What next, you gonna get engaged to your xbox?

You're looking at this situation in isolation.

Given you're happy to mercilessly ridicule a friend for something like this, it's likely you are happy to ridicule anything they do which you don't agree with or attempt to understand even where it affects you in no way at all.

It's very unlikely your friend is able to turn to you for support or help for any situation when they really need it given the response they feel they might receive from yourself i.e. ridicule.

This results in them saying nothing and bottling everything up resulting in potentially destructive situations for them and others.... All for being unable to talk to an empathetic friend

I wonder how many people are out there who wish their friends knew they could have turned to them for help rather than keeping it to themselves and ending their lives....