I think that a pretty good indicator is how many elderly people go to shops and talk to attendants just to have someone to talk to. There are plenty of lonely people in the world - and I think that the average age is coming down considerably.

It often takes a subtle form where relatives and such keep asking single people, particularly if they are in a certain age range, if they're seeing someone or when they're going to settle down and start a family.

People are always on the lookout for "microaggressions" these days. Seems we have raised a lot of highly sensitive people - perhaps everyone should live isolated in light grey rooms to make sure they don't get sesnsory overload and upset ;D

You, too, started blaming people having been through nasty divorces who do not want to remarry for possibly being bad at relationships, rather pointlessly, I should say.

It takes two to tango. It is not like I haven't seen messy divorces - everyone has been facilitated by both sides.

Because if someone went through a particularly nasty divorce and it being nasty was their fault because they're particularly bad at relationships, they why on Earth should these people of all be trying to get back into the relationship game?

They don't have to. But if people are making decisions because other people have gone through nasty divorces - that is senseless. As you said - people who's parents got divorced.

You seem to think that there are digital worlds somewhere that somehow prevent people from acting at their own volition and make them choose to be single.

Gaming is one. 2 billion or so people in the world are gamers. it is a highly addictive pastime, as is social media and the like. These people are more likely to be at home (can't meet many people there) more likely to be over weight (limiting their options) more likely to have expectations on what is desirable, but less likely to be able to achieve it. No wonder there are large commununities of incels out there. And I will assume that there are many incel adjacent who haven't joined the forums yet, but hold similar ideals.

If someone decides to stay away from them out of their own choice, you can be sure that it has always resulted from careful thought.

I think this doesn't make sense. It requires no thought to relationships at all, to stay at home gaming 12 hours a day. However, perhaps a decade down the track they might chance upon a thought that something is missing in their lives - hopefully by then, they will be able to have their perfect VR relationship that'll do everything they want without compromise- sounds pretty fantasy land, childish and unhealthy to me though.

Maybe the increasing numbers of addictions and depressives is an indicator of something fundamental missing in many people's lives.