As little girls and boys, in our childhood we often dream a lot about who we would like to live our lives with, who will be "the woman" or "the man" who will stand by our sides to honor and cherish us in good times and bad. In the last half century :o) I have talked many times and a lot and hope to continue to do so about love, marriage, divorce, parenting and family not only with my friends, but with my children as well. What is his/her role in a relationship? What is the job and/or tasks of each partner?
Certainly no one can argue that the world has ever changed as much as it has towards the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. There has never been such change during one generation - the world has simply opened up. Today, in a single day, we establish as many connections with the help of different technological devices as we did in a full year at the beginning of the 80s.
The habits, expectations, social patterns, written and unwritten rules of society that determine human life have become obsolete. Thus, people of the 21st century often and rightfully feel left without support. Role models taken from previous generations no longer help us navigate our lives and the new ones are still in development. In this great upheaval and confusion, the main trap of the information society is that surfing the internet results in sometimes useful, often useless, and sometimes even harmful information uncontrollably bombarding the human brain. Slowly fading interpersonal relationships and social frameworks are being eroded by the sprawling jungle of expectations and selfishness. This process is also exacerbated by muddled relationships and hostility.
Happiness is expected to be reached through those "dream-like" expectations which, through logical thinking could be seen as unreachable. It almost becomes natural for a person to just "play" his/her life, or pretend to have achieved the "big dream". Then at some point, the balloon just bursts.
