When I was in junior high, a relationship started with a note passed halfway across the classroom with "check yes or no" scribbled on it. Following the class, the two would hold hands and it was official: they were dating.
Nowadays, the process has changed, partly based on age and partly based on social media networks. Today's relationships typically begin with the same stages of grossing each other out and then friendship before finally falling into the Hey, I might actually like this person stage. However, the "rules" to make it official have changed dramatically. It now takes more than telling people you have a significant other. We all have been in the awkward scenario of telling someone about how we have started a new relationship only to be confronted with the oh-so-common question of, "Well, is it Facebook official?"

So, is that what our world has become? Apparently, a relationship only holds merit when it is posted on a social media platform for the anyone and everyone to see. This is easily compared with the new-found saying "pic, or it didn't happen." I have been exposed to both sides of the argument and I will detail out both sides, but my question to you is this: does the "In A Relationship" line your profile define the parameters of your relationship?

Yes, yes, I get the idea of letting the WHOLE world know that you have a significant other. People need the attention from others to look and realize that we have someone who can stand to be around us for longer than an hour at a time. People crave the likes and the comments of congratulations; we all love attention in some way or another so there's no denying that part. But for people to base their relationship off of that is a bit absurd.
"But, if it's on Facebook, then all of the girls will know he is with me and won't try to talk to him." Hold up...that's why? Shouldn't you just trust him well enough that if girls do try to talk to him he will politely, or impolitely, say, "Sorry, I have a girlfriend"?
"If its on Facebook then everyone knows that we are together." ....Oh yes, I forgot. You are one of those people who post everyday about what you had for lunch and what time you vacated your bowels. Because we ALLLLLLL wanted to know.

I think it goes without saying that, to me, a relationship is far more than an option on Facebook. A relationship is the way I feel with that person. I want to feel comfortable, happy, and loved. I want to be able to sit around the house all day with them without saying a word and not be bored. A relationship isn't even defined by calling him my boyfriend. Yes, I might think of him that way, but I do not need to boast to the world to define and know what he means to me. And I'm hoping that I would mean the same to him whether we used those terms or not and whether or not it was "Facebook Official."

I don't need everyone and their grandmother to know that I am dating someone to make it feel real.
It feels real when I see him walk into a room and get butterflies.
When he smiles and I smile too without noticing.
When I hear his laugh and do all I can to hear that laugh more often.
That -- is a relationship to me.

While I do understand that some people need a relationship to be posted in order to give themselves a better sense of security with their significant other, I still don't fully get it. Some claim that it takes away the ability for their significant other to deny that they are in a relationship, but if you really have to worry about that..should you be with that person in the first place?

The world's relationships and marriages lasted long enough without a Facebook relationship status, so what makes it so crucial now?
Despite all of that, I will give you this -- I do like showing off what a great man I have managed to bring into my life