What the Media and its Wisdom Have Done for Romance

In America today, everyone is continually faced with messages regarding romance and love om everything from books and movies to music and advertising. Companies such as E Harmony guarantee us that we can find the love of our lives over the Internet. Movies of all types, not just those labeled as romances, almost always incorporate a cliche love story into the plot. We are made to think that successful relationships are easy and just happen because fate wills it. Unfortunately, this is almost never the case.
The media would like to have us believe that we can find that one person who is meant for us just by, well, blundering into them. And once we meet them, hardships will only occur in the beginning of a relationship, if they do at all. From that point on it will be smooth sailing into eternal bliss, a perfect ending, with little or no sacrifice or effort required. For the record, I am not opposed to the notion of each relationship destined individual having one person they are meant to meet, (on the contrary, I find that my faith fully supports it). But I refuse to believe that one can find and truly love this person so easily. As we often hear in a Catholic school, this country's divorce rate is 51%. This means that over half the people in this nation who think they have found the right person and marry them later decide they were wrong. Obviously, the romantic ideas we have been spoon-fed for decades have no applicable value.
I don't think all these people chose the wrong person, though I'm sure many did. A good number, perhaps a majority, of them probably found the right person and blew their chance. Hollywood's doctrine notwithstanding, relationships take huge effort and dedication. You don't just find someone and suddenly have it made. It takes selflessness, sacrifice, a priority of the other person's good above your own, no matter the cost. Anyone who starts dating and only aims to satisfy their own desires is not creating anything that will last. Also, you have to constantly make an effort to learn more about the other person, both to better serve them and to know for sure if the relationship can work. Obviously, as a junior in highschool, I don't have much experience in this area, but I think I have enough to tell that the media is once again preaching a false, misleading idea that sets millions of people up for failure and disappointment.
However, many have seen through this lie and gone too far in the opposite direction, turning away from serious relationships in favor of “casual dating.” They don't put any serious value on what they are doing, and simply date people for shallow reasons that can't and usually aren't expected to lead to anything permanent. This mindset also contributes to the devaluation of sex that Thompson described. Individuals just live in the present, striving to fulfill current desires and ignoring numerous long term consequences. These short, fleeting relations only hurt in the end, and one is left with an empty feeling that they believe can only be cured by another such endeavor, creating a vicious circle of emotional dissatisfaction and pain.
The media and current cultural mindsets have produced countless inaccuracies regarding romance and love, twisting something pure, positive and essential into a collection of trends and failed solutions. This collective mindset has done nothing but grievously hurt America, driving divorce rates skyward and making way for the derailing of multiple generations' chances at true success in this area. And not only that, but we are exporting this disease to the rest of the world, as we do with all our ideas. America as a whole needs to get over its chick flick addiction and need for the instant gratification of romantic desires if we are ever going to fix this devastating pandemic.