my theories on twenty-somethings dating in the 20somethings

Being almost twenty-three in the year 2009, I have been noticing some things about how people around my age, in this day and age, relate to one another. I have found myself amongst a group of friends that would consider themselves liberal and progressive, myself included. We are skeptical of marriage and open with our sexuality...at least we like to think so. Most of my friends would cringe when I say that we are modern-day hippies. The problem with this is that we seek monogamy more than we want to admit. I personally have dated roughly seven people in the last two years, four of whom I slept with during the first week, two that wondered why we didn't sleep together during the less-than-two-week relationship we had, and two of whom I virtually lived with by week three. Sound slutty? Too soon? Well it's certainly not uncommon. Among my friends I would be hard pressed to find any that have been dating the same person for more than two weeks and haven't slept with them. It would also be hard to find any that are in an exclusive relationship that aren't virtually, if not literally, living together. Having recently combed through my possessions to separate out those of my ex-boyfriend's, I've started reconsidering a concept that I began thinking about a couple of years ago: Why don't people date anymore? Everyone I know- gay, anti-marriage, and all- are getting married without getting married, and rather quickly I might add. More than half my friends this past year found themselves in relationships that they knew were not working or that they wanted to leave, but couldn't. Either they would be left without a place to live, have to deal with custody battles over couches and dogs, or it was just too hard to deal with the pain of separation. And half the time they can't even admit when they're in a bad situation because their emotions are so clouded by the comfort and stability of their faux-marriages. I'm not convinced that any of us are really equipped to go through a divorce and having gone through one via my parents, I can at least say, confidently, that I wouldn't be able to do it at the ripe old age of twenty-two. So then why are we putting ourselves in the positions to have to? Celebrities get divorced as though it were just breaking up and liberal college kids move in together as though it were the equivalent of a third date. I don't know anyone who would actually marry someone that they didn't know extremely well and weren't sure how they felt about. So then why are we all merging our possessions and our bodies with people we've just gotten to know? I'm not sure I see the difference at the end of it all between what we're doing and getting divorced. I didn't have to sign any legal documents and I know I don't have any legal rights to the Animal Collective record that we bought together, nor he to my record player we used to listen to it, but that doesn't seem to make it any easier. I guess I'm just wondering if courting has any place in this anti-christian, anti-conservative world in which i am still hoping to reside. Or am I just more old-fashioned than I want to admit?