Forget 'Friends': The couple makes a comeback

"There are more single people than ever before, but culturally those people are not happy," she says. "The idea that it's a great way to live is not what I see being true."

She identifies the lifestyles portrayed on shows such as "Friends" and "Sex in the City" as lagging about seven years behind real trends. "You find that television tends to pick up and run with things when they've already reached their peak and are dwindling."

Instead, Ms. Rapping points to a return to family-focused series set in small towns, such as "Seventh Heaven," "Joan of Arcadia," and "Smallville."

Men feel the pressure, too, experts say, although maybe not as intensely as women.

"The key difference is that as a culture we've always had a story for the value of what men can do during a marriage delay," says Ethan Watters, author of "Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment."

"There's been a story for the meaning of what a man can do outside marriage and that is usually to establish himself as a full-fledged person, a successful man."

Steve Kilpatrick, managing director of the Georgia Wealth Management Group at Wachovia Securities in Atlanta, has actively chosen to focus on his career.

His friends call him "the Ladies Man," a reference to a "Saturday Night Live" character. While they don't actually think he's a "love machine" - as is his namesake on the show - Mr. Kilpatrick, at 34, is a lone single among his friends.

He enjoys the independence, but is ready to settle down. "Honestly, I'd say that most people my age want to be, if not married, in a committed relationship. They want to be heading in that direction."

There is some evidence that even as Americans increasingly embrace and revere coupledom, some are choosing to enjoy the benefits alone, which may explain why some women are signing up for their own gift registries, without waiting for a wedding first.

"I think people are fulfilling the total fantasy of family with everything but the spouse," says Seth Familian, strategist at Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve, a consultancy in New York that tracks consumer trends.

Perhaps that is the spirit in which DeBeers has unleashed an ad campaign - "Your left hand rocks the cradle. Your right hand rules the world" - to encourage women to buy themselves diamonds to be worn on the right hand.

But some observers consider such actions to be empty gestures, an effort to act out the rituals of coupledom without having actually paired up.

But Professor DePaulo hopes that books such as "The Paper Bag Princess" will lead the youngest generation away from the fetishization of coupling.

In Robert Munsch's children's story, Princess Elizabeth rescues Prince Ronald, her betrothed, from a dragon. In the process, however, the dragon's fiery breath burns her expensive garb. When she appears to Ronald wearing only a paper bag, he belittles her bedraggled appearance.

The story ends with the princess saying to Ronald: "Your clothes are really pretty and your hair is neat. You're like a real prince, but you are a bum."

They don't wed after all.

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