Social Marriage

By: Elizabeth Yang

Narrated by: Catherine O'Connor

We live in a time of instant self-gratification. Just about everything we think we want is within our reach. This includes most things like food, sex, social entertainment, material things, even marriage. We have the advancement in technology to thank for a lot of it. In most states, obtaining a marriage license has little requirement other than filling out paperwork. There is even the option of going online to expedite the process. In some cases, a blood test is required, but the turnaround time is still two to three weeks most of the time. Getting things seems to be easy. But what about getting rid of things, like a failed marriage?

I have found that the problem that exist is two-fold. It involves the legal system and the couple wanting to sever their relationship. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the marriage rate in 1990 was at 7.9 percent per 1,000 total population in California. The rate dropped to six in 2018. I believe the drop-in rate is due to millennials being discouraged about what marriage is supposed to be like, not just in California, but everywhere else in the United States. There just aren't very many role models to show how it is done any more.

Several family law attorneys groups have done the research, and concluded that almost 50 percent of marriages in the US will end in divorce or separation, with 41 percent of first marriages ending in divorce, 60 percent of second marriages that ending in divorce, and 73 percent of third marriages ending in divorce.

It appears the marriage and divorce rate numbers are trending in the downward motion. If the marriage rate increases, then the divorce rate increases. If the marriage rate decrease, then the divorce rate decreases as well.

©2021 Elizabeth Yang (P)2023 Elizabeth Yang