Pets or Humans: Who gives more in a relationship?
I couldn’t help but write a blog regarding this article I read today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oukoe_uk_poll_pets_valentines_life.
If you don’t feel like reading the whole article, let me just sum it up in one sentence. According to this study of 23,000 people around the world, an average of 20% of those people would rather spend Valentine’s Day with their pet rather than their partner. Mind you, there is a lot to be considered when looking at this percentage, but I can’t help but think about how this percentage parallels human relationships today.
I am trying to wrap my mind around this concept. People in relationships would rather spend time with their pets on the most romantic day of the year??? We seem to be disconnecting from each other on a personal level. Some think it is due to internet social networking; others may say they are “too busy.” Whatever the reasons are, the reality is that a hand shake is not as solid as oak anymore ,and your closest friend may not even be a human being. We spend more time with our on screen friends (tv) then our real life friends. We order more carry out, text instead of having a conversation, and now screen our calls to avoid confrontation. What is happening to our human relationships?
The best I can come up with is that perhaps animals are easier to trust than humans. Trust is the most difficult thing to measure when evaluating human relationships. Whether or not you can trust someone is based on so many different factors and varies with each person. Trusting another person is one of the most, if not the most, critical components of a healthy relationship. But because it is so hard to measure and so hard to detect, I can’t help but wonder that people are starting to trust in things that are impossible to measure. Trusting a pet is a lot easier than to trust a human being. Pets are trained to not hurt you physically. Verbally and emotionally they can’t hurt you because they are not able to talk or verbalize feelings. Since we can’t communicate with animals (the same as with humans) about our emotions, it is not possible to measure our emotional trusting level with animals. So, when it comes to relationships with animals, if we don’t like a certain behavior, we can train them to treat us how we want to be treated. Do pets give the unconditional love for their owners that no person can attain?
I am curious to know who would choose their pet over their significant other this valentine’s day and why?
