Dating in a Social Media World

Today, we live in the age of social media.

It is the first place we turn to learn most major news and community announcements. I have learned more about the political climate from Instagram than CNN and I have received more life updates from Facebook than from phone calls with friends.

When I first started dating my fiancé, we had to have the “social media” conversation. We had to determine if we wanted to follow each other, tag each other, or make it Facebook “official.”
This conversation took me back to the days of hoping to land in someone’s MySpace Top 8. I know I am not the only person that misses the days of glittery moving font and a random song playing whenever you visit a person’s page.

We had the social media conversation because social media has become an unexpectedly important aspect of relationships in the 21st Century. We have all seen the couples that are #RelationshipGoals or the couple we secretly keep following because they write better drama filled posts than most soap operas.

Social media’s influence has become so great that it has been a constant subject since the moment we got engaged. Even when we initially got engaged, we requested any family and friends that were present to give us a few days to enjoy our engagement before posting on social media. We have even toyed with the idea of an unplugged wedding.

With social media now being factored into most 21st Century relationships there are a few things you must consider:

• Take everything you read or see with a grain of salt.

I found myself so envious of so many relationships, when I was single, because I would see photos of the gorgeous places the couple visited or the love poems the couple would tag their spouse in. Most of my favorite photos of us are tucked away in my phone and my most cherished memories have never been posted for the world to see.

• Be wary of posting every little aspect of your relationship, especially the drama.

As I mentioned earlier, we all have that one friend that may post a little too much information about what’s going on at home. The one thing I gathered from so many of my friends (single or in a relationship) is that relationships take a lot of work. At some point you will reach a disagreement with your partner but it will make it a little tougher to move forward after blasting them on social media.

We all know that relationships take work, but we often overlook the fact that work is not glamorous and not photogenic. It is amazing to see the power social media has been for large platforms, but it is important to not overlook the small efforts that may not be shared or posted.

xoxo

– Shay