Hey #TheJoshCast fam, Let’s talk about Living Single. Our Host, Joshua is a 90s baby that loves the 90s! Let’s dive right in, Living Single is an American sitcom television series that aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22, 1993 to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who shared personal and professional experiences while living in a Brooklyn brownstone. This is important news, because one of the biggest demographic trends of the past 50 years is the rise of singles: In 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey reported that more than 120 million U.S. residents, or almost 48% of adults aged 18 or older, were divorced, widowed or had never been married. In 1970, 29% of the population, or 39 million adults aged 18 or older, were single.And yet single people still face a stigma. Bella DePaulo, a social scientist and author of “Singled Out,” has been studying singles since the late 1990s and has coined the phrase “singlism” to describe the ways in which people discriminate against singles. The stereotyping includes the assumptions that singles are miserable, lonely or selfish; that they are desperate to get married; that there must be something wrong with someone who is single. Some single people internalize all that, even if they like being single,” Dr. DePaulo says. “They even sometimes think that liking single life is itself a sign that something is wrong with them.Society is organized around couples—they get breaks on everything from club memberships to tickets and events. And it can be a drag for singles when people offer advice or insist on fixing them up. “I think the phrase ‘fix you up’ is telling,” says Dr. DePaulo. “It seems to suggest that you are broken, and that coupling will mend you.”She says the hardest time to be single is around the age of 30. That’s when the expectation to be married becomes most intense. Friends and relatives are marrying, or are already married, and single people often feel like the odd person out. This feeling is most acute in single people who socialize primarily with couples. “Couples often demote their single friends to lunch or daytime events or children’s birthday parties, basically treating them as if they are not fully adult,” Dr. DePaulo says.It is possible for single people to adjust their attitude and become happier. In a not-yet-published study done at Simon Fraser University, in greater Vancouver, British Columbia, psychologists gave single people one of two made-up articles to read, one reporting that singles are generally happy in life and one reporting that they are not. People who read the happy version of the article reported higher levels of life satisfaction and lower desire to find a relationship than those who read the more negative version. Basically, “if you have a fear of being single this undermines your well-being,” says Yuthika Girme, a social psychologist and lead researcher on the study. So how can you be happiest being single? Focus on creating a full life now, for yourself, rather than finding a partner. Surround yourself with other happily single people. Watch the language you or others use to refer to singlehood. (Ever walked into a restaurant alone and had the host ask: “Table for just one?”) Be proud of the life you’ve created.
