I suppose I’m statistically abnormal since I was widowed at age 43. I have 9 children; youngest is 3. I’m curious to read the original post that inspired this poll to possibly understand the motives behind it…

This is the thread referenced in the OP
https://www.cathinfo.com/catholic-living-in-the-modern-world/the-psychology-of-celibacy/msg891587/#msg891587

transcribed text
https://www.cathinfo.com/catholic-living-in-the-modern-world/the-psychology-of-celibacy/msg892887/#msg892887

Wow, 64 votes. I'd say that's a decent sample. CI polls often struggle to get 30 votes. 

One limitation of the poll is that we don't know the activity levels of the voters. How many are active users (defining "active" users is difficult too) and how many are lurkers who never post? 

Another limitation is that of the married, there is no way to distinguish between newlyweds and couples in their 70s whose children have long since grown and left the home (not to mention all of the options in between these extremes: middle aged couples without children, young couples with MANY children, etc.).

No poll is perfect, but I think this one is decent. 

I have long wondered about the nature of online communities, and of tradcat ones in particular. 
I've had my suspicions for a while that at least so far as active userbases are concerned, forums select for lonely people. The poll results confirm this, although the picture is not as bleak as I anticipated. *Almost* half of the voters described themselves as happily married (which I would code as "not lonely"-- obviously it's not THAT simple since married couples might be lonely otherwise, and single people might have lots of Catholic friends, but I think it's safe to say the happily married are significantly less lonely in general). But about 40% of voters are unmarried, and the majority of these do not expect to marry. There are more people who are in unhappy/nonCatholic marriages than I was expecting. In toll, slightly more than half of the userbases is not currently happily married.

Having a family is of course the most stable and natural way to protect against loneliness. Not having one, or having one where the spousal relationship is corrupted or fundamentally deficient in some way, is one of the heaviest crosses one can bear. As I mentioned the poll was motivated by another thread about the psychological nature of Celibacy (by which the author really just means being unmarried).

It only makes sense that virtual communities, especially in our all but completely anti-God modern age, would attract "refugees" seeking respite from the Godlessness in which they are immersed. This is not to say that places like CI are nothing more than a psychological cope; they're definitely more than that. Nor is there even anything wrong with seeking out virtual Catholic interaction if/when one finds it lacking in real life. But I think it's worth acknowledging a motivation that brings us all together. I actually think a lot of the animosity one finds on forums might be due precisely to the fact that many users, animated by a desire to compensate for a lack of Catholic solidarity, become all the more irate when their place of respite has people they don't see eye to eye with on some issue or another. It exacerbates the problem they're trying to solve in the first place. And of course, if they really are lonely, they're probably at a greater risk of impatience anyways. 

Just some thoughts, God bless.