#OnlineDisplayOfAffection
From ‘Single’ to ‘It’s complicated’ to ‘In a Civil Partnership’ before going back to ‘Single’ again, individuals today have made it a part of their life schedule to announce relationship statuses on social media.
For each time the status shifts from one type to another, there is a barrage of emotions that flow out onto the timelines in the form of sappy quotes, mushy pictures and dramatic declarations.
Welcome to the generation of millenials that archives everything on social media including the check-ins at the airport for literally every time they travel to #instafood for every meal that’s eaten, in between all the major life events. Social media is now an elite fish market where gossip, stories and life events are discussed with keen interest.
However, what nobody seems to notice is that a lot goes unsaid while stating the momentous. The fights are veiled under long drive selfies and the incompatibility lays buried deep beneath the lovey dovey status updates. Everything looks fairytale perfect on the outside.
And when this façade that’s built brick by brick comes crashing down one fine day, social media is a flurry of whys and whats, surprisingly from people you didn’t even think noticed your assumed shenanigans. And there is where the truth in social media lies.
We only push out our best photos and our landslide victories that a single devastating news becomes unacceptable and unbelievable and needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, by our audience.Your life events are like a matinee show that all your friends have a front row seat to and the actual time you realize it is when you need support or alone time. Good luck.
It’s like you are the pied piper of Hamlin, where with your tales you basically diverted all traffic to your life, for everybody to follow your world, word to word. And when the time was up, you inadvertently end up with attention especially when you need the least of it.
I remember a friend of mine who was the social butterfly, a pretty face and in a relationship that looked like it was the one for the movies. They did cute pictures, gorgeous vacations, cooked for each other, and the likes. It was a sore sight to see a single picture in which they weren’t together. And so when the burnt eggs became harder to consume and the cozy selfies neared oblivion, it sent tinsel town in a tizzy. Not announcing the end doesn’t help as it makes way for some incredible speculations.
So when she thought she could be subtle about the sudden shift in the #relationshipgoals, she moved her status from ‘In a Relationship’ to ‘Single’ and boy, did social media go nuts or what! From the girl gang crooning, “..Oh babe! You okay? It wasn’t worth it okay! “ to a random concerned classmate going “Oh, I am so sorry, you guys were so good together”, her comments section was a riot.
And such is the case with all relationships on social media. Some steer clear out of the whole letting the world know right from the start, while others learn it the hard way. Once the drill is understood the pattern to immediately follow is, untag ex, delete photos, get off Facebook for half a year to let the gossip die down and stealthily creep back into the circle again much later, ready to brave the world of onlookers.
And then for some, it’s another relationship, another series of posts, another break up and the vicious cycle goes on.
