The Idea of Marriage Is Changing

“”Who Needs Marriage?” blares the cover of the latest issue of Time magazine. Inside, a Pew Research Center/Time poll documents Americans’ changing attitudes toward the custom and pointedly asks: “if marriage is no longer obligatory or even—in certain cases—helpful, then what is it for?” The most cited findings in the poll were that four out of every ten Americans think that marriage is becoming “obsolete” and nearly forty-five percent think that it is eventually headed for “extinction.” Despite the sharp language used, the article is not necessarily pessimistic about the about the enduring future of marriage. It may well just look slightly different from its 20th century incarnation.