Hey, I came across this on one of the blogs I follow. I wanted to post it to Lemmy and this is the closest community that fit. Hope it’s okay - it doesn’t seem I’m breaking the

I must admit that I got defensive reading the article and I didn’t appreciate the savior complex in the last few paragraphs, but perhaps I’m misdirected. After all, the article isn’t complaining about lack of long-term commitment, marriage etc., but the ability to experience dating emotionally. I feel this by the below paragraphs:

I recently experienced a flicker of possibility. With James. […]. There was just enough spark to wonder what might unfold. Enough curiosity to imagine a doorway. But he didn’t step through it […] — flirting, retreating, offering warmth but no direction.

Sexual tension and a spark aren’t reason enough to sit still and hope there’s substance behind the shimmer. […] I invited, leaving the door open. […]

He never replied. He still follows my Instagram stories — one of those small gestures of passive engagement that so many of us now mistake for closeness. It looks like interest. It feels like silence.

There was a time, not so long ago, when even a one-night stand might end with tangled limbs and a shared breakfast. When the act of staying the night didn’t announce a relationship, just a willingness to be human for a few more hours.

Maybe we’re between paradigms, mourning what’s fallen, not yet fluent in what comes next. The infrastructures of intimacy — slowness, curiosity, accountability — have been eroded by haste, convenience and a kind of sanctioned emotional retreat.