"Roses are red; violets are blue. I'm only sending you this because society has conditioned me to."
—Unknown

Valentine’s Day is associated with tremendous cultural pressure around romance for singles and couples alike.

For singles, there’s pressure to be in a relationship, have a date, or look desirable to a romantic partner. As a result, it’s common to experience feelings of loneliness, social isolation, sadness, anxiety, social pressure to celebrate, and even self-pity on and around Valentine’s Day. For example, a study by the online dating site Plenty of Fish (2020) involving 2,000 singles revealed that 51 percent of the sample felt pressure to be romantic, 43 percent to be in a relationship, 42 percent to go on a date, and 41 percent to act like the holiday is meaningful. Even........

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