Henry H. Brownstein...from The Problems of Living in Society, Pearson Education, Inc., 2003...p.31

Imagine living on a planet populated by billions of people in a nation inhabited by hundreds of millions and being expected to identify and select one person with whom to share all your adult life. Add to that the expectation that your relationship with that one person will be the most intimate of all your relationships. Then add the mandate that forevermore your sexual relations will be restricted to that person. For a few years, preferably when you are young, you are permitted if not encouraged by people around you to practice spending time and perhaps sharing intimacy with a few different people. Then you can expect pressure from those family and friends to make the inevitable decision and select one. Simply accepting the norm that you must make such a decision places an enormous burden on you. The social demand and urgency placed on you from people around you to actually make it increases that burden. If that's not enough, anticipate that those same people will try to help you to make the decision by granting approval or disapproval to your choice.