If you read my stuff, you understand that it is pretty eclectic. One week, I may experiment with adding TVP in a meatloaf; the next, I’ll ponder whether God exists; and the following, I’ll explore why I am the way I am.

The blog has never had a commercial purpose. I’m just a guy with a thousand interests, and I enjoy writing. I often tell my kids, “If this post makes a single person think about the topic, then that is a bonus for me.” However, the pure enjoyment of putting thoughts on paper is my primary motivator. Many people have told me repeatedly that more people would read my work if I shortened my posts. Very true, but what is the fun in that?

Often, my posts are stream-of-consciousness, but sometimes, I feel the need to push my personal envelope and explore a topic further. Like many, I dip into social media sites, including YouTube.

About a month ago, YouTube’s “For You” page featured a video about relationships. I can’t remember the exact title, but it was something like “What Men Need To Know About Women.” I clicked on it, which sent me down a rabbit hole of other men-centered videos, including many “Red Pill” ones. When you watch a concentration of them, they start to mess with your mind, and I felt I needed a balance, so I deliberately forced the algorithm to give me more female-perspective videos. These were equally horrifying.

Men bashing women, women bashing men, women treating men like objects to be exploited, men categorizing women along extremely narrow lines. It was pretty horrible. As an expert in behavior, I understand that these curated videos can significantly impact viewers, creating biases and prejudices that can have lasting adverse effects in the real world. I decided I had to write about it, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to spread what I felt were false narratives. I wanted to offer an observation that would counter the rhetoric. Were people actually ascribing to this stuff?

I decided to approach the topic obliquely. I would write a more general post on the dangers of curated media, which I did on December 3rd. I then opted to focus on the forces of change in our society, and since I was leading up to a post on dating and relationships, I felt the feminist movement was fitting. As a person who believes in equality for all, it disturbed me greatly to see a shift in that movement that seemed to border on hate. However, I wrote that post on December 11th.

With those two posts serving as scaffolding, it was time for me to use the “Red Pill,” “MGTOW,” “Sprinkle Sprinkle,” and other videos to write about relationships in 2025. Based on the videos, the dating scene seems to be in horrible shape. We are commoditizing people (both male and female) in a way that will doom society eventually. Is this really what is happening to dating? Are we all becoming objects to be used and thrown away when we are no longer shiny new pennies? Have we all become narcissistic creatures where others are simply there to be consumed?

I decided to conduct background statistical research on the topic, asking questions such as “Are marriage rates declining?” “What are the percentages of men between 18-29 who are not dating?” “What are the statistics on divorce rates?” “Who initiates most divorces?” … and so forth.

Although I usually write with a stream of conciseness (as I’m doing here) when I want to remember numbers (like stats), I’ll often save them in a file. Guess what? I already had a file on relationships I started in November of 2023! Apparently, I was going to write a post on this very same topic then, but chickened out, as I’m doing now… so I apologize.

Why am I holding off on writing this post? My November 2023 data predicted a horrific future for dating, commitment, and society as a whole. The data that I just gathered suggests that things have gotten worse.

For those seeking a serious relationship, it must be an extremely frustrating and arduous task. Tools, like dating apps, don’t help; they harm. Social Media doesn’t join and educate, it causes fear and dissension. It is very sad.

I try to post things that improve people’s lives, even something as simple as teaching someone to slow-cook a pot roast. When I post something controversial, I try to add some hope, or even a solution or two. Right now, I can’t do that when writing about the current state of dating and commitment. Therefore, I’m holding off on writing the post that I said I would. It is all very sad. I’m very sorry.

Mike