First we priced out 1 man mortgages, then we moved to couples, then we priced out couples, so poly serviced mortgages makes sense from a living arrangement perspective, if people could have their own space they wouldn't be having all these strategies to survive

I think it's likely more of an open thing these days, not necessarily more of a thing. The term itself was only coined in the '80s, and prior to that, I'd imagine talking about it was even harder (but it definitely happened; William Moulton Marston, creator of both Wonder Woman and the lie detector, lived with his wife and their mutual girlfriend). I also think that, while I'm not inclined to ever call anyone's sexual life "just a phase," some people might indeed explore having multiple partners before settling into marriage.

And, of course, in the "old days," someone might indeed be openly dating multiple people, only choosing to "go steady" after a while, but that wasn't considered a form of non-monogamy.

This is pretty normal since the 60's. People just didn't call it "poly".

Think about the tv show Friends: all the men and women paired off at different times. Same thing for How I met your mother or Rent. This kind of thing is very commonly in the restaurant business, resort staff, among frats / sororities, and of course FTX/Ameida (ba dum tss).

The difference with GenZ is this behavior is being explicitly codified into this monstrosity of all the worst aspects of HR/pop-psychiatry/family-law. It was always messy before we started calling it a polycule, but alleged solution seems (to this cranky old man) to be worse than letting it play out.

From the data I've seen, it seems like the dramatic trend is towards young people not having any romantic relationships.

I recall talking to @plebpoet a while ago about how the kids today feel pressured into "alternative" romantic arrangements.

I think the rise of porn and the internet allows men and women to explore sexual relationships in alternative ways.

I think this has always been the case but it was more taboo thus not discussed.

Funny. I was randomly reading about Maîtresse-en-titre this morning.

Depends a lot on the country, the culture, age demographic, polyamory is a trend in movies, that might influence the viewer and seed new fantasies, but seriously having one relationship working is already pretty complex, imagine having multiple ...

Yeah. I hadn't had any contact with polyamory outside of reading about it online, then in the past couple years I've encountered two people who were into it. Not particularly young, either.

It seems like at the most a very short-term type of setup.

There is a reason why you are guilt tripping right now. It is not your fault that you think of yourself as judgmental. We are not judgmental. They are just somewhat within the bounds of autism spectrum.

sampling, random observation + virtue-signalling among this crowd of people.

As they get into their 20s etc they'd be more and more likely to meet a non-insane person and brag about their insanity to them.

never heard of it

All I can tell you is that it's not a thing in India. The culture here doesn't allow it. If someone is practising these things they are subject to dishonour the society. And get thrown out of it. It's also unlawful here.

meh, family is the ultimate proof of work - all the rest is LARP

Maybe. In my experience its just people that have extreme self-esteem issues grouping up. Given them a few years, most will quickly tire of the complexity of it. Hell, most will tire of monogamous relationships in a few years.

For the philosopher Zygmunt Bauman, “liquid relationships” would be personal experiences of each person, without the construction of the identity of a couple, of the integration between two individuals. In this fluidity, each person's life would be prone to changing from one moment to the next, sometimes unpredictably. Bauman, in Liquid Love, states that even affinity is becoming something uncommon in a society of extreme disposability.