Marriage a-la-Most Gone

In the painting series "Marriage a-la-mode" by William Hogarth, he depicts the tragedies that can happen in the process of an arranged marriage, or any marriage that is constituted for the purpose of monetary or social gain for that matter.
Our current culture may not have arranged marriages as often, if at all, but we do have our own culture surrounding the concept of marriage. To be honest, we seem as a society to not have a culture of marriage, but a culture of the lack thereof.
By this I mean that in our current society the concept of marriage for many people seems to be just a piece of paper and not a meaningful union. The age for marriage is getting higher and higher on average, whereas the age for children being born gets lower. This can be attributed partially to accidental pregnancies, but a large portion of these births could be also attributed to people living together and starting families, but without first going through the process of marriage.
There can be many other reasons that could point to the fact that marriage has become less important in our culture overall. One of these reasons could be peer pressure from society to earn a full education and get settled before worrying about marriage, and at the point where a person could be ready for marriage, the opportunity could have past them by while they were engrossed in studies. Another reason could be the lifestyle known simply as "YOLO" or "You Only Live Once." This idea glorifies lifestyles of free-willed ideas, daring activities, and thrill-seeking adventures. It seems to suggest that people follow spur-of-the-moment tendencies rather than settle down, marry, and raise a typical suburban family.
There are certain groups of people that still believe that marriage is an important part of their lives, and an essential step before that of starting a larger family. There is also, in my opinion an equally great or greater amount of people who, for various reasons, have decided that the bonds of matrimony are not required in their lives.