There is an expiry date for everything for today’s youth. Be it gadgets, jobs or relationships when the next best thing serenades through they are ready to grab it with both hands. This is a disturbing trend and sadly its implications are felt through all areas of their life.
Be it mobiles, apps, ipads, ipods, the minute we put in an order for something online, there is something better right around the corner. Sadly the youth of today are bringing the same attitude towards life and relationships.
Girlfriends and relationships too seem to come with an expiry date of one or two years. Very rarely do we get to see people having meaningful mature relationship with the opposite sex. Last week we saw how social media is influencing our relationships in many adverse ways and to a large extent, it can be held responsible for the current trend.
Twenty years ago, if someone was getting divorced the reasons were infidelity, incompatibility, cheating etc. And each of these reasons happened over years of marriage. But today people want to end their relationships and marriage for reasons that define the period that we live in.
For most part, couples today feel that it is better to end a relationship rather than work through their issues and give it a try.
Shiv Vishvanathan, a sociologist says, “There is a great sense of mobility in today’s generation: not only physically but also emotionally. There’s always someone else who could potentially fill their spouse’s shoes. The new generation also has a great sense of individual. If they are not happy, they have no problem in cutting their losses and trying again instead of ‘wasting time’.”
Moving on from one relationship to another is never an easy thing to do because people on rebound make the same mistakes yet again.
Arun and Swathi met each other in B-school. After a whirlwind romance that lasted for two months they felt that they were ready for marriage. Things started falling apart from the first month of marriage.Employed as investment bankers, they both led busy professional lives but once home Arun expected Swathi to cook and take care of household chores while he watched television. Swathi soon became disillusioned by his attitude and their fights escalated. Within three months of marriage they were at the court requesting divorce. They refused the counsellor’s advice to try again and bent on hurting each other, they sought divorce with a single-minded devotion.
A decade ago, if property issues and dowry was the reason for divorce these days marriage counsellors have to contend with couples who are unwilling to back down, change or compromise to give their marriage another shot. A family court counsellor in Mumbai says in retrospect, “Now we see young couples who want to separate because they cannot agree on who will do the chores, or because they have realized that they no longer like each other. Most of these are young couples in the first or second year of marriage.”
Image courtesy : Redcross.ca
