Singles got a bad name in the 1970s and have been blamed for many of society’s ills ever since, but they were revolutionaries in their own way. This century, we’ve witnessed significant growth in the unmarried population in America (and Europe and Asia), a shift that impacting the world. It’s taken hold in part because phones and apps and other tools of liberation have uncoupled living alone and loneliness.

Many social scientists believe this new normal is a poison pill for us culturally and economically, but Bella DePaulo, author of How We Live Now, argues the contrary in a Nautilus essay. She believes the modern living arrangements have made for stronger and better communities, with an untethered class of people who’ve improvised families and have the time and freedom to contribute to the world outside their homes. I tend to agree with her, but it would be great to know for sure since the answer could help us in creating smart policy. The opening:

When Dan Scheffey turned 50, he threw himself a party. About 100 people packed into his Manhattan apartment, which occupies the third floor of a brick townhouse in the island’s vibrant East Village. His parents, siblings, and an in-law were there, and friends from all times and walks of his life. He told them how much they meant to him and how happy he was to see them all in one place. “My most important family,” says Dan, who has been single his entire life, “is the family that I’ve selected and brought together.”

Dan has never been married. He doesn’t have kids. Not long ago, his choice of lifestyle would have been highly unusual, even pitied. In 1950, 78 percent of households in the United States had a married couple at its helm; more than half of those included children. “The accepted wisdom was that the post-World War II nuclear family style was the culmination of a long journey—the end point of changes in families that had been occurring for several hundred years,” sociologist John Scanzoni wrote in 2001.

But that wisdom was wrong: The meaning of family is morphing once again. Fueled by a convergence of historical currents—including birth control and the rising status of women, increased wealth and social security, LGBTQ activism, and the spread of personal communication technologies and social media—more people are choosing to live alone than ever before.

Pick a random American household today, and it’s more likely to look like Dan’s than like Ozzie and Harriet’s. Nearly half of adults ages 18 and older are single. About 1 in 7 live alone. Americans are marrying later, divorcing in larger numbers, and becoming less interested in remarrying. According to the Pew Research Center, by the time today’s young adults reach age 50, a quarter of them will have never married at all.

The surge of singlehood is not just an American phenomenon. Between 1980 and 2011, the number of one-person households worldwide more than doubled, from about 118 million to 277 million, and will rise to 334 million by 2020, according to Euromonitor International. More than a dozen countries, including Japan and several European nations, now have even larger proportions of solo-dwellers than the U.S. (Sweden ranks highest at almost 50 percent.) Individuals, not couples or clans or other social groups, are fast becoming the fundamental units of society.•