SINGLES.CA is not a site
about single people (singles). SINGLES.COM is.
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 SINGLES
- In relationships, a single person is one who is not married,
or, more broadly, who is not in an exclusive romantic relationship.
Single people may engage in dating
to find a partner or spouse. Not all single people actively seek out a
relationship, however, as some are content to wait for the 'right' person to
enter their lives, while others do not seek relations at all.
According to the United States Bureau of the Census, the fastest-growing
household type since the 1980s has been the single person.
Loneliness can occur for many single people who look for but cannot find
anyone they might wish to date, especially for those suffering the loss of
companionship following divorce or bereavement. Some single people, however,
regard and appreciate solitude as an opportunity.
There is a legal distinction between a single person and an unmarried
person. Generally, an unmarried person may have been married and now be
widowed or divorced. This may be the significance of the title of the 1978
Paul Mazursky film An Unmarried Woman. In some cases, mortgage papers have
had to be redrawn because the buyer was mistakenly described as "unmarried"
rather than "single." (This left open the possibility that a mysterious
ex-spouse might claim a part interest in the house being purchased.)
Single men are often referred to as bachelors—while single women generally
are only named bachelorettes in festive contexts in American English.
Elderly single women are sometimes referred to as spinsters, but the term is
considered pejorative and sexist. Catherinette was a traditional French
label for girls of twenty-five years old who were still unmarried by the
Feast of Saint Catherine.
In the last five years, mate-finding and courtship have seen changes due to
online dating services. Telecommunications and computer technologies have
developed rapidly since around 1995, allowing daters the use of home
telephones with answering machines, mobile phones, and web-based systems to
find prospective partners. "Pre-dates" can take place by telephone or online
via instant messaging, e-mail, or even video communication. A disadvantage
is that, with no initial personal interview by a traditional dating agency
head, Internet daters are free to exaggerate or lie about their
characteristics.
While the growing popularity of the Internet took some time, now one in five
singles is said to look for love on the Web, which has led to a dramatic
shift in dating patterns. Research in the United Kingdom suggests that as of
2004 there were around 150 agencies there, and the market was growing at
around 20 percent a year due to, first, the very low entry barriers to
setting up a dating site, and secondly, the rising number of single people.
However, even academic researchers find it impossible to find precise
figures about crucial statistics, such as the ratio of active daters to the
large number of inactive members whom the agency will often wrongly claim as
potential partners, and the overall ratio of men to women in an agency's
membership. Academic research on traditional pre-Internet agencies suggests
that most agencies have far more men than women in their membership.
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