“Fear of missing out” is used to explain why people use social media items they don’t need nor want. But marriage is an example too.
I know there is wholesome cases where people want to start a family with other people they like to spend time with.
But a lot of the times it was also “Hey I am of the age my siblings and friends got married. I should meet people with the sole goal of marrying them and raising children.”
It was always just supposed to be a public declaration of partnership and commitment (made with the intention of fulfilling our biological imperative, ofc… remember that reliable, safe and not disgusting methods of birth control weren’t widely available until the late 19th century), not too dissimilar to posting your relationship status on Facebook, just with more weight behind it, lol. And, unless you live in some weird, selectively legally misandrist country that “punishes” men unfairly in divorce (the manosphere talks a lot about it, I assume there’s at least a modicum of truth to it in some places), it still kinda is just that, right? And, evidently, suddenly waking up sometime in your late 20s to 30s and realizing the optics around your singlehood aren’t too positive is one of the worst reasons to hurry into marriage! But many people are silly and live mostly mindlessly, thanks to inertia almost. 😅