Stop the presses!

-Similarities make relationships last longer than differences
-Sex is healthy
-Atmospheric change irreversible
-Atmospheric change definitely caused by mankind
-Facial symmetry is attractive
-Pair bonding influenced by facial features of the parents

What do all these online article headlines have in common? Well, several things. They are all commonly known, they appear time after time over years, they are always presented as "new" although they have been published before, and it always takes scientists to figure out things that any human being could guess.

The phrase is always "now [enter number] scientists at the [name] institute have found out that..." and it makes you wonder how many scientists can find out the same thing until all the scientists in the world come to the conclusion that other scientists in other countries have already stated the obvious a million times.

Another interesting thing is what the media make out of this. They use the amazingly researched information to use it for their own interests. You can easily link the "sex is healthy" part with the online dating site that you are supporting, link it to the erotic area of your site, and of course also promote "free love" as something totally normal. In other words: Just have sex with everyone as often as possible, otherwise you die early. By the way, people who kiss a lot live [enter number] years longer than people who.... uhm... don't kiss. Monks?

Eventually they do more things, like even turning bad things into good things. For example: If you cheat on your partner, be so nice not to tell them, because that ruins a relationship. You do your partner a favour by NOT telling them. And hey, it's better for everyone. You can have sex to support your health, and your partner can live without worries. All the stress is really unnecessary.

Yes, it's true. Our society has come to a point where it is open to discussion whether to tell someone that he/she was cheated on or not. In the good old days it was up to everyone to decide, but nowadays you can read everywhere what some stupid journalists think. Imagine if your partner buys a typical man/woman magazine and it's full of this kind of shit. What would you think? I personally don't like the thought that a magazine talks about "7 ways to deal with having cheated on someone" or "10 secrets a woman should always keep" or "20 reasons why magazines that use whatever number of reasons suck".

Why is all this such a big problem to me? Hm... I think it's because there is no room for the deeper meaning any more. It can be religion, but also the true ideal of being in a love relationship. It used to matter more to be loyal to each other, but nowadays it looks like nobody believes that loyalty pays off. You can't justify it with religion because 90 per cent of the readers are either unreligious or only religious by name. I also must admit: It's difficult to explain loyalty in a secular world. You can't say:"Well... you just don't do things like that".

One more thing: One colleague at work sucks. Why am I saying that? Just precaution. I don't want it to look like I didn't see it coming. If I ever write about him again, then you know I saw it coming.