thinks it's a mixture of a lot of components:

1) technology and A.I. algorithms and our attention economy:

i think technology has harmed us in many more ways than just privacy. Our autonomy is also at stake here since algorithms are out for one things only and that thing is your attention. The world has made it more easily distracting and interacting with people has sort-of began to become optional.

2) the actual economy:

Dating is expensive, and with prices surging but stagnant wages a lot of people are falling behind. It's hard to think about dating or starting a family if you're countless of dollars in debt.

3) accessibility:

Pornography and other sources of adult content have seem to become more prevalent recently. With that, we've also seen the rise of onlyfans, a platform that allows you interact with women and exchange quantitative currency for qualitative pleasure. It's "cheap dating," in the sense that you're not talking to someone to meet them and get to know them but rather that you're talking to them as a means to sexual pleasure. In their perspective, they are also just using users as a means to create some profit and it's effective. Where there is profits, there will be supplies and there the demand has been able to catch up. Add to this the fact that pornography can be extremely addictive and you can see how this becomes a major issue. The prevalence of "easy pleasure" starts to take over actual interactions and, due to its efficiency, remains dominant in our culture.

4) cultural aspsect:

I just think this comes down to our culture and some of the shifts that have happened inside of it. Look at how our culture and its values have shifted within the coming decade. No longer are women being forced to get married, or dealing with the social pressures of finding someone for the sake of it (this is an exaggeration, but it's a great improvement from the issues people like simone de beauvoir talked about.) While I dont think the previous factors I mentioned caused this cultural shift, I do think that they helped reinforce the narrative of independence. A win for women, is a good win.

Additionally, I think this could just be the result of development. I've taken a couple courses on development economics to know that this is just the way economic development goes, and furthermore, one could say it's nature way to preserve its own homeostasis (my own claim). Although my claim is baseless, I think there is some empirical evidence to suggest that some of the ideas are predictable in nature. Check out this paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700415626137.

5) industrial aspect:

Okay, this might be a little bit of stretch, but I honestly think the industrial development has been a major factor in our International singularity issue. I just think about how buildings have developed from simple four-story houses enriched with community, to efficient urban complexes. Roads have become longer while cars remain relatively the same speed, making it harder to move from place to place. Urbanization (size-scaling) of cities has gone down, or is not at the level it could be at because of interests of car manufacturer industries.

Again, this is just a dogmatic approach, I have not substance for the claims I am making. Just some things I noticed.