Monday, we bring you stories about marriage and sexism and round that up with a tone-deaf emoji lesson.  Happy Monday, quick readers.

Erica Pandey writes for Axios and brings a not-so-surprising story on Marriage in America.  One of the most significant data points was the increase in the number of women who enter their first marriage after 40; that number has jumped up 75% since 1990.  The marriage rate has dropped almost 60% since 1970, and many factors correspond to progress.  There have been financial incentives to being married, taxes, healthcare, and housing benefits for a couple.  Many of those benefits apply to a couple regardless of marriage.

Fifty-plus years ago, a higher percentage of people got married and then went out and got jobs and had kids.  Today, more young people are primarily focused on good jobs and paying down debt before getting married.  This new shift also gives some the confidence to continue being single now that they are alone.

Love is the one area not discussed in the article and is difficult to review from a data perspective.  It’s a tradition worth holding on to.

The Guardian recently interviewed Bonnie Garums about her award-winning debut novel Lessons in Chemistry.  According to the article, the book takes a complicated subject matter, a story about an American scientist in 1955 who was fired for being pregnant.  Garums explains that for all the negatives that come from sexism, you can find a person's strengths and weaknesses in them, and in that, you can find it through humor. 

The funny side of WSJ brings us a story about the increased brevity of text message replies and the miscommunication and comedy that can ensue.  We have gone from making up character responses like :-( to emojis and now iPhone gives us a tap back, a one-click response with a handful of quick answers to let someone know you have received their message and your early reply. 

The tone was a big issue during the early days of email; it was challenging to express tone in a written email.  We've gone off the deep end in our ability to convey tone, and with the endless opportunities to tell everyone we communicate how we feel about everything, the tone is an issue once again.  Getting a thumbs up when the recipient expects a heart can lead to therapy.  The best way to achieve Tone is to verbalize it with more voice and fewer thumbs!

Bikini Bottom…

We made plans.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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