The talk about having roommates into your 30s, 40s, and 50s to be able to split the load, avoid loneliness, socialize more, find motivation to do things with others, and have interesting conversations with people in different life situations is all interesting and good. Certainly something a single person should at least consider.
But it also feels funny to read this as a someone with a family at home, because a healthy family home life checks all of these boxes and more. I’m sure someone will come along to comment that not all families are this good at being friendly and splitting the load of cooking and such, but I think you’d find that most roommate situations aren’t splitting the load of cooking and making meals together like this at a much higher rate.
It might be that a person with roommates is more likely to be introduced to more people and therefore more likely to find someone to marry, than a person without roommates. No idea if there is any data on that.
My own experience is that when I had roommates they would invite people over or invite me to activities where I'd meet new people with very little effort on my part. Vs when I've lived alone it felt less far less likely to meet new people without more effort.
having a family or home is no longer affordable either way.