Name: Hening Tang Student ID: 751416 Date: 15 Aug 2014
Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages for men and for women, of being single
(=unmarried, unattached). Are these different in different countries?
It is a common saying that if someone is being single, that people is a loser. However, there
are a lot of people keen on being single even if someone who is married or attached for the
advantages of being single. It should not be taken granted that every single people are loser or
having good life.
For people come from different countries, there is a questionnaire showed that the attitude of
being single are similar for British, Brazilian and Chinese. In the questionnaire, thirty
people(three Chinese, five Brazilians and twenty-two British) were asked some question
about being single. The percentage of data is similar (Tang et al.). It is not only the reason
why data statistics became very easy but also shows that in different countries, the relative
advantages and disadvantages are similar in different countries. In the other hand, the number
of men and women are the same in this questionnaire. As a result, the conception is also
familiar for men and women about being single.
In this questionnaire, twelve people thought that the best advantage of being single is
freedom. It is hard to keep relationship long for people who do not want to feel stressed. And
they would not be forbidden to have more friends. Compared with someone who is married
or attached, single people, even the older ones—are much more likely to spend time with
friends and neighbours. A study conducted by Cornell sociologist found that from 2000 to
2008 those over the age of 35 who lived with a spouse or partner were less likely to spend an
evening socializing with friends than those who didn’t. (Cornwell 2010)
For those people who prefer working or developing hobby rather than keeping
relationship(12 of 30 people in the questionnaire)(Tang et al.). ‘A lot of younger people are
staying single longer so they can focus on their careers. They want to establish themselves
and become a happy, successful person before having a serious relationship.’(Krueger 2014)
The right to privacy encompasses the right to protection of a person’s intimacy, identity,
name, gender, honour, dignity, appearance, feelings and sexual orientation and extends to the
home, the family and correspondence. The right to privacy may be limited in the interests of
others and under specific conditions, provided that the interference is not arbitrary or
Name: Hening Tang Student ID: 751416 Date: 15 Aug 2014
unlawful. ( Winters 2004). However, the meaning of privacy is not the same as logical
thinking at all. That is the reason why a group of people prefer to be single in order to protect
their personal privacy. Privacy can be efficient even when there is no “taste” for privacy per
se , and to be effective, a privacy policy may need to ban information transmission or use
rather than simply assign individuals control rights to their personally identifiable data.(
Hermalin, Katz 2006).
Although there are a lot of advantages for being single. However, there are still a large
number of disadvantages need to be considered. In the questionnaire, it shows that most
series problem is loneliness(18 people in 30 totally). Moustakas considers loneliness in two
ways, the first being existential loneliness which is undoubted a part of human experience
and valuable for self-understanding. His second point of view about loneliness is that of self-
alienation and rejection which is not a loneliness but a interrupt to the integrity of the
individual and produce a vague and disturbing anxiety (Moustakas 1961).
These problems are simple for people to think about immediately. Therefore, there are some
further problems that grievous and not so easy to be found. Desire for intimate relationships,
