An increasingly mobile society is also undermining intimacy, some experts say. For young people, it can be even tougher. It used to be that you went to college, then got a job and you stayed until you retired and got a gold watch. People no longer have loyalty to a company. They just move on.
Young people are a lot more anxious as a result.
What happens is, some young people latch onto one another because they're frightened and they form unusually dependent relationships too soon. Once they've settled down, the couple may well find they aren't suited at all. And that's hardly helpful in developing a healthy, long-lasting relationship, Dr. Horner says. Yet another mechanism for avoiding intimacy is overwork. People don't want to feel that longing that's so deep and unmet.