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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

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A Case of the Human Condition: Fewer Marriages — but More Facebook Relationships?

January 1, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Apparently, fewer Americans are getting married these days. (Check out the PBS Newshour story.)

But lots and lots of people are doing the next best thing: making a public declaration of being in a relationship — on Facebook.

Neither of my twenty/thirty-something kids is married. But both are telling the world they’re in a relationship … and they’re naming names.

The computers over at Facebook keep you honest, I notice. You can’t say you’re in a relationship with somebody unless they agree to it.

Read more about getting committed at “The Day She Popped the Question” and “Why He Never Called Me Back.”

On the other hand, some folks are so keen on marriage, they’ll marry a bunch of people all at once: The Darger family of Utah has three wives. Photo by BF Newhall

Filed Under: A Case of the Human Condition

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When a Grown Daughter Doesn’t Call — Or, How to Overmother a Twenty-Something

Christina Newhall with cell phone. Photo by BF Newhall

Christina hadn’t called. We had dropped her at the airport hours ago. The flight to Burbank takes only seventy minutes. She should be home by now. But Jon and I still hadn’t gotten the, “I’m home. The plane didn’t crash. My roommate remembered to pick me up, and we didn’t get mugged in the garage,” phone call. Read more.

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