All posts tagged: singles

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — When a couple marry in a church, synagogue or mosque, the ceremony does more than sanctify a union. Often, it binds two families to an institution. For centuries, marriage and child-rearing have been among the main ways adults are integrated into congregational life. Couples who share the same faith tend to be more observant, and they often raise children within that tradition – bringing the next generation into congregational life. More marriages mean more families in pews and more children raised in the faith. That helps explain why the rise of single adults is so unsettling for many faith communities today. In the United States, 42% of adults were not married or living with a partner in 2023, up from 38% in 2000. This shift is unlikely to change soon: A quarter of 40-year-olds have never been married, and a third of Gen Z are projected to never marry. At the same time, the share of unmarried Americans who belong to a religious congregation has fallen well below that of married Americans. …

Watch K-Pop Band BTS Perform Two New Singles at the Guggenheim

Watch K-Pop Band BTS Perform Two New Singles at the Guggenheim

Published by José Betancourt

Countless bands and musical artists have celebrated new album releases on late-night television, but no one has done so with quite the art world flair as BTS, the mega-famous K-pop boy band fronted by art enthusiast and collector RM. (The other six members are Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook.) Fresh off a four-year hiatus, BTS’s new album Arirang came out on Mar. 20. The band was interviewed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night. But instead of performing their new single “SWIM” in Studio 6B, Fallon played a previously recorded video from a secret live performance at the Guggenheim Museum earlier that day. Related Articles In the video, Fallon stands in front of a circular stage on the ground floor of “New York’s iconic Guggenheim Museum,” as the host puts it, and introduces the song. All seven BTS members take turns singing while strolling separately down the museum ramp, with Carol Bove’s colorful metal sculptures acting as a backdrop to the performance. They meet up on the stage just …

Harry Styles scores second UK singles and album chart double of his career

Harry Styles scores second UK singles and album chart double of his career

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Harry Styles has once again asserted his dominance over the UK music scene, achieving a number one chart double for the second time following the release of his latest album, the Official Charts Company has confirmed. The 32-year-old’s new 12-track record, titled Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, shot straight to the top of the album chart upon its release on Friday. Concurrently, his latest single, American Girls, has claimed the coveted number one spot on the singles chart. This feat mirrors his success in 2022, when his album Harry’s House and single As It Was also secured a chart double. The Official Charts Company noted that Styles has delivered the biggest opening week for a male solo artist in nine years, a record previously held by Ed Sheeran with his album Divide in 2017. This new release, his first in nearly four …

Men told me why they aren’t going to singles nights – and the reasons were fascinating

Men told me why they aren’t going to singles nights – and the reasons were fascinating

Published by Daniella Wilson

Join the Independent Women newsletter with Victoria Richards for a thoughtful take on the week’s headlines Join the Independent Women newsletter  Join the Independent Women newsletter  Occasionally, you write something that strikes a nerve. A recent one of mine about men not attending singles nights was one of them. Since the piece was published – you can read it here if you missed it – I’ve received hoards of emails from men, eager to share their thoughts with me. Usually, I’d dismiss these sorts of messages – they’re often written by trolls, more concerned with projecting their own frustrations with the world onto women on the internet than they are with engaging in any kind of meaningful discourse. I’ve been called a dumb b*tch, an ignorant toad, and a litany of other, sometimes rather creative, insults. But the men writing to me this time weren’t like that. They were intentional, heartfelt, and honest. And they were interesting, too, offering up a wide range of insights into why men might be more reluctant going to a …

‘Hell on earth’: Men share why they avoid singles nights

‘Hell on earth’: Men share why they avoid singles nights

Published by Daniella Wilson

Join the Independent Women newsletter with Victoria Richards for a thoughtful take on the week’s headlines Join the Independent Women newsletter  Join the Independent Women newsletter  Olivia Petter’s report on the challenges of getting men to attend singles nights prompted a flood of responses from male readers sharing their own experiences of dating. Rather than rejecting the premise outright, many used the comments to explain why events like these hold little appeal for them personally. A recurring theme was discomfort with structured, high-pressure formats such as speed dating, which several described as “forced”, “synthetic” or akin to a job interview. Men spoke about feeling exposed in environments where rejection plays out publicly, arguing that the expectation to be instantly charming, funny and confident creates an uneven dynamic. Some said they preferred meeting partners organically – through friends, shared hobbies, travel or everyday life – where connection develops more naturally and without an audience. Others reflected more broadly on modern dating. A number of commenters said they had opted out of formal dating altogether, citing exhaustion …

Men aren’t signing up to singles nights – I launched my own and found out why

Men aren’t signing up to singles nights – I launched my own and found out why

Published by Daniella Wilson

Join the Independent Women newsletter with Victoria Richards for a thoughtful take on the week’s headlines Join the Independent Women newsletter  Join the Independent Women newsletter  Dating has a problem – and the only people willing to fix it are women. Specifically, straight women, who are flocking in droves to singles nights around the world in an attempt to find a pleasant, emotionally available, and suitably untraumatised man. And yet, very often, this pursuit is futile, because the only other people there are single women like themselves, with little to talk about besides the mythological men who didn’t show up. As for those men, well, who knows? Perhaps they all decamped to a desert island without wifi. This might sound hyperbolic. But it’s a realistic depiction of what’s going on in the dating industry right now. I know this because I’ve recently become a part of it, having launched my own singles nights last year. It started as an accident; I wrote a feature for Style about throwing a singles mixer for my straight female …

Sex first, dinner later: what can singles in Oslo, Berlin, Paris and Rome teach me about dating? | Dating

Sex first, dinner later: what can singles in Oslo, Berlin, Paris and Rome teach me about dating? | Dating

Published by Sam Flores

Last year, I went through a breakup and threw myself into internet dating. I started experimenting with mirror selfies, and spent whole evenings trying to take artful photographs of my own bum. I agonised over my three-line bio. I even put a notebook by my bed with the Hinge prompt “most spontaneous thing I’ve done” written on the first page, so if the answer came to me in a dream, I’d have a pen and paper handy. I’d spent my early 30s trying to cling on to a failing relationship, which had made me feel stuck in a holding pattern. As if I was fated to have a slightly different version of the same argument every night until I was dead. The thrill of scrolling on Hinge, when I first started dating, was that it felt like shopping for an alternate future. I’d pore over pictures of men cradling small dogs and swinging tennis rackets, and get high on the thought of all the tiny dogs and tennis games we would enjoy together. I started hiding my phone …

Team GB secure first gold at 2026 Winter Olympics as Matt Weston wins men’s singles skeleton | UK News

Team GB secure first gold at 2026 Winter Olympics as Matt Weston wins men’s singles skeleton | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

Matt Weston has won gold in the men’s singles skeleton competition, Team GB’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy. The 28-year-old, a world and European champion, had been the favourite for gold after leading at the halfway stage of the event on Thursday, with track records in the first two heats. On Friday, the British athlete posted another track record on his third run – recording a 0.39-second advantage at the top of the leaderboard. Follow latest updates from Sky Sports A near faultless run in his final heat at the Milano Cortina Games saw him increase his margin of victory to 0.88 seconds, bringing the gold home with a fourth track record. Image: Weston completes his final run. Pic: Reuters Image: Pic: AP Germany’s Axel Jungk took his second successive Olympic ⁠silver, ​while Jungk’s compatriot and ⁠defending champion Christopher ⁠Grotheer picked up ​the bronze. Marcus Wyatt, Team GB’s other medal hopeful, finished ninth on Friday. Image: Matt Weston after winning his gold medal. Pic: Reuters Image: Weston celebrates his victory. Pics: Reuters …

One specific form of insecurity is significantly lower among singles who have casual sex

One specific form of insecurity is significantly lower among singles who have casual sex

Published by José Betancourt

A new study published in the journal Personal Relationships provides evidence that single adults who engage in casual sex tend to report higher sexual satisfaction and a stronger sense of their own desirability compared to those who are sexually inactive. The findings challenge earlier assumptions that casual sexual encounters are inherently linked to negative psychological outcomes for single people. Psychological research has historically focused on sexual activity within the context of committed romantic relationships. When researchers have examined casual sex, they have often restricted their attention to university students or “hookup culture.” This specific focus has left a gap in scientific understanding regarding the sexual lives of single adults in the broader community. The authors of the new paper sought to address this oversight by examining how often average single people engage in partnered sexual activity. The research team aimed to determine if casual sex contributes to or detracts from the general happiness of single adults. They also sought to identify if specific personality traits, such as attachment style, distinguish singles who have casual sex …