If you like it then you should put a Ring on it..

For this post I am going to channel my inner Carrie Bradshaw. Why you ask? Well one of my friend's from home is getting married this upcoming summer. This raises a lot of questions in my mind, and leads me to think about the generational differences on marriage. And while I am may not agree with it I feel that society shifted our perceptions of marriage.

As someone who has not had a boyfriend for longer then a year, it is hard for me to comprehend someone at 23 tying the knot to someone they have known for only 2 and a half years. Nonetheless, while 23 is on the younger side of getting married, statistics say that the average age is 27.8 for men and 26 for women from the United States. This number has risen considerably in the last half century. In our parents time it was not unlikely for women to wed in their early 20's, with men averaging in their mid 20's. This rise in age can be attributed to a combination of women entering the work place and continuing the education much longer.

Thus it is funny to think that our society has arrived at the point where we question why a 23 year old, college educated, women is getting married. And while, I may not agree with her decision to get married, I feel that my feelings may derive from how our culture has been conditioned. The Millenial generation has been conditioned to think that "Okay after college I am going to work for a couple years, perhaps I will go to graduate school, and along the way I will hope to meet my life partner."

And while, I could dive much deeper into the issue of how society as impacted marriage, but this is a blog, not a research paper. This is merely food for thought.