Every day when I scroll down my timeline on Twitter there are always tweets about the same subject. I even broke it down to three groups of people on my timeline. You have ESPN twitter, which consists of daily debates about the same topics. These topics include top five basketball players, the better player between Jordan and Lebron, and the daily obsession with Steph Curry. The other group of people I see on my timeline is a group I call Old Dominion University (ODU) Twitter. This is where you get an insight into people's day to day life that attend ODU. You can also update yourself on what parties are coming up and any drama that is present at your school. In addition to these two groups, the last group of people I see on my timeline are single people. This group of people tweets consist daily tweets about wanting a strong relationship and bond with someone but they never seem to find it. This has me asking the question, how is it that so many people are longing for a relationship but somehow everyone is single?

The answer to this question is that maintaining a relationship in this generation is pretty difficult. 80 percent of single people have reported that the reason they are single is because they struggle to know what to look for in a significant other. Along with people not being sure about who and what they want, other factors that make it hard to sustain a relationship includes the constant exposure to temptation, the influence of social media, and miscommunication. The constant exposure to temptation has always been a difficult thing to continuously reject whether you are female or male. This is because it is proven that people get an edge or a sense of thrill by taking a risk and doing things they are not supposed to be doing. Have you ever done something you know you aren’t supposed to do but continue to do it? I’m sure you have because we all have done something we shouldn’t have. Therefore, rejecting guys or females consistently may be a hard thing due to many things. Attractiveness, the status of you and significant other, and your mindset are factors that influence whether you give into temptation.

Another reason, maintaining a relationship is hard is because many people lack trust and the ability to compromise in a relationship. The ability to trust and compromise has been a lost art in this generation. Psychology Professor at the University of Minnesota, Jeffrey Simpson says that “Trust involves the juxtaposition of people’s loftiest hopes and aspirations with their deepest worries and fears.” This essentially explains why it is so hard to trust people because the benefits of trying to trust somebody are overshadowed by the possibility of getting hurt by your significant other. In addition, the ability to compromise in a relationship is now harder than ever. With the integration of the “talking stage” and different definitions of cheating and loyalty, the idea of compromising is usually just skipped over, and people just go with the flow. The evolution of social media does not help this issue. Over 90 percent of adults 18-29 are using social networks. Social networks, like Twitter and Facebook, essentially make the world smaller. You can now communicate and meet with people all over the world and the chance you’ll find someone else you’re interested in increases. Many relationships start from meeting online and then proceed from there. In addition to relationships starting online, also, many affairs start on social networks. It’s essentially easier to cheat with the evolution of technology nowadays. It’s not that difficult to hide it and not get caught up with the use of social networks.

In conclusion, the reason relationships don’t maintain is because many people lack the main ingredient of a relationship which is compromising.