Marriage Today

Marriage today is not what it used to be.  My wife and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary last night and on the way to dinner we discussed how 8 years of marriage in 2012 must be similar to 24 years of marriage in 1950. Honestly, married couples should be allowed to account for marital inflation. We're dodging way more divorce bullets than couples had to in the past.

A photo from the '50's.  Not the 1950's.  50 pounds ago.

It's harder to stay married these days.  Us married folk have a lot going against us.  We face problems now that those in the '50's couldn't even begin to imagine, and today's technology is breaking up relationships faster than the speed of 4G (note to self: change to 5G when necessary).  Some of the biggest contributors to divorce today, besides not being able to keep it in your pants, are Facebook and Cell Phones.

Facebook has become such a huge factor in broken relationships today.  I know a few couples that have joint facebook accounts much like they have joint checking accounts, so everything is transparent.  They know who each other is talking to and what they are saying, which is probably a good idea when you consider the average facebook user has 250 "friends", many of which a spouse has no idea who they are.  Personally, my wife and I have separate accounts, but we know each other's passwords and are open about our usage.

Old friends are better than Facebook friends.

The biggest danger comes in reconnecting with old high school romances.  I just heard a story the other day about a couple that has been married for forty years breaking up because the wife ran away with her high school boyfriend after reconnecting on facebook.  Seriously?  You're going to leave your husband of 40 years (and her two children) because some dude you haven't seen in 50 years writes sweet nothings on your wall?  Good luck with that and I wish you well.   I understand that reconnecting with old lovers can happen without facebook, but social networking makes these things happen much easier and more often.

White people dancing.

Cell phones are another huge problem that our parents and grandparents didn't have to face.  Back then, it took you a good two minutes to make a booty call on your trusty rotary phone and chances are, there was only one phone in the house, it wasn't cordless, and it was in the living room where everybody congregated.  Now we have our own cell phones, we can send texts quicker than you can dial a rotary phone, nobody has to know whom you are calling/texting/sexting, and you can erase the evidence with the push of a button. 

So yeah, marriage today is tough.  Throw in the kids, the economy, global warming, gas prices, the series finale of Lost, and all the other depressing crap we've brought upon ourselves and it's a wonder any couples make it past the first two years alone.