Ep. 31: Why Can't Anyone Commit Anymore? Has Social Media Ruined Dating?

You go on a few good dates. You meet the family. You talk about marriage and kids. And then one day, gone. No conversation, no closure, nothing.

If that's happened to you, it's not just you. It's everyone. Modern dating is broken and we need to talk about why.

The Dating Crisis Is Real

This isn't us being dramatic. In 2000, 80% of people had dated someone in the last year. By 2024 that dropped to 43%. Half as many people are actually dating, and the ones who are keep getting treated like they're disposable.

Everyone connects fast, gets excited, goes on amazing dates, and then vanishes the second things get real. It's not the same dating we grew up with. It's something else entirely, and social media is sitting right at the center of it.

Social Media Made People Disposable

Back in the day you broke up with someone in person. You had no choice. You had a conversation. You ended things looking at another human being's face.

Now people unfollow you in real life. They had an energy exchange with you and then decided they could just swipe you out of their life in two seconds, no discussion required. The swiping, the liking, the following and unfollowing trained everyone to treat people like content instead of humans. You stopped being a person and became something to scroll past.

The "I'm Just Not in the Place Right Now" Speech

You've heard it. We've all heard it.

It always goes the same way. They're all in, talking about what they want out of life, marriage, kids, the whole thing. Then suddenly they're "stressed" or "anxious" or "just not in the place right now, focusing on my career." And we're not talking about 20 year olds here. We're talking early to mid thirties, running out of time, suddenly noncommittal out of nowhere.

The wildest part is they actually do want marriage and kids. They said it out loud. They just didn't want it with you, and instead of saying that, they hand you a script.

The Panic and Dip

You feel it before it happens. The texts start dwindling. The energy shifts. You go from one place to a completely different place and you just know.

And here's the thing women keep telling themselves: no no no, I'm just being crazy, I need to calm down. You're not crazy for noticing a pattern. Pattern recognition is a skill, not paranoia. The hard part is that once you've been through it enough times, you start bracing for it in every new connection, and sometimes you wonder if you're manifesting the exact thing you're scared of.

They Always Come Back

They ghost you, they disappear, they gut you. And then months later, sometimes years later, they come back.

Sometimes it's a direct reach out. More often it's quieter. They follow you again. They start watching your stories. They like your stuff out of nowhere. It's an ego thing. They want to know they still have the pull, that they could have you back if they wanted. It's not love, it's a boost. So please, do not let them back in. The moment you tolerate it once, it's locked in their head as the boundary you'll accept.

Situationships Vs Relationships

Here's the truth nobody wants to hear. There is no real difference between a relationship and a situationship except that one of you refuses to commit.

You do everything a couple does. You just don't get the label, because the label would mean accountability. And people think the no-label version protects them from getting hurt. It doesn't. A situationship ending often hurts worse than a real breakup, because at least a relationship usually comes with closure. A situationship leaves you with one question on a loop: what did I do? The answer is usually nothing. You being you was never too much. They just didn't want it, and you have to accept that.

Stop Shrinking Yourself for Men Who Don't Want You

So many women start auditing their own behavior, holding back, hiding what they want, all because they're scared that being themselves is what makes people leave.

We watched a friend do this recently. She held back from being supportive, from being herself, terrified it would read as "too much." It ended anyway. So you might as well be the full version of yourself, because the minute you shrink and they still leave, you'll convince yourself it's you. It's not you. It's their fear of commitment, and that's not yours to fix by becoming smaller.

Is It the Apps, or Is It Us?

The apps ruined us. They wrecked our beauty standards, how we see ourselves, how we see each other, and how we connect, or don't.

You're shopping for a human like you're scrolling a menu, and there's always something else one swipe away. Men especially get fed an endless stream of sexualized content designed to keep them engaged, and it bleeds straight into how they show up in real life when there's a real person in front of them. But getting off the apps isn't simple, because everyone's addicted. The apps just took what was already in people and gave it a place to run wild.

So Do We Have Hope?

It's been getting progressively worse, but it feels like we're hitting the breaking point. People are exhausted. They're craving real connection, going offline, romanticizing the pre-digital days for a reason. The pendulum always swings, and it's swinging back. People are leaving the apps in huge numbers. It just hasn't fully translated into real life yet.

If you want our actual advice: get off the apps and meet people in the wild. Say yes to every event and invite. Worst case, you make a friend or a good work connection and have a great time. And never, ever settle for some bum who doesn't even like you. We'd rather be single with no kids than stuck with a partner who's lukewarm about us. Hold out for the real thing.

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Ep. 32: Culty Work Environment vs. Company Culture: What's the Difference

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Ep. 30: The Rebuild Era: Divorce, Loss, and Coming Back Richer