This community conversation was hosted as part of Dysfunctions of the Decades & a Functional Future, a project which spotlights topics critical to building a sustainable future and culminates in a community-led pop-up arts and culture exhibit the evening of Earth Day, April 22nd at WOO Creative in Delray.
Ah, Relationships in the Modern World…
A lively intergenerational discussion emerged out of last week’s Community Conversation on “Relationships – Dysfunctional or Functional, Do You know the Difference?”. With the help of Jianny Adamo, Licensed Mental Health Counselor and the founder of Fearless Love, we journeyed through the Decades exploring the cultural influences shaping modern romance as part of our latest community project.
We humans are relational beings and the driving factor in most of our lives is our relationships. Whether we’re participating in functional or dysfunctional relationships determines so much of the quality our life experience.
How can we tell can the difference between functional vs dysfunctional relationships? By the ripple effect from our behavior and interactions with one another. We are either positively affirming each other’s life potential or we are undermining it.
Just like emotions are contagious so is culture and so much of how we choose to behave is subconsciously organized by the status quo, or the “vessel of norms” we find ourselves collectively living in.
Here’s a quick run down of our thoughts on what we found to be functional or dysfunctional with love and romance over the decades, starting with the 1940 & 1950s.
1940s & 1950s
Functional: Marriage was scared and the clarity from defined gender roles made things simple.
Dysfunctional: Lots of people were hiding true feelings and living inauthentically.
1960s & 1970s
Functional: Express self with less judgement and growing acceptance for differences.
Dysfunctional: Rise of broken families through divorce and media increasingly influencing self esteem.
1980s and 1990s
Functional: Marriage evolves to companionship.
Dysfunctional: And yet relationships were disposable as our obsession with entertainment grows.
2000s & 2010s
Functional: Opportunity for communication is at its highest with the advancement of technology.
Dysfunctional: Isolation looms despite unprecedented opportunities to connect through technology. We’re all alone together now.
Predictions for the Future
Who knows how we will look back on the next 20 years of love and romance and just how much technology will influence our relationships as we continue to co-evolve with it. Predictions that communally-mind Millennials will move us towards greater universal aspects of love, transcending traditional structures and fostering greater levels of love for self and community is what members of that generation are hoping for.
We shall see.
Click here to access this discussion presentation.
