I am 100% that person who clicks on just about every article that I see posted on Facebook. I’m a reader, so naturally I like to check out what’s trending among my friends and peers. Oftentimes I find that many young people around my age are posting articles about how technology is ruining relationships, stating that it's unavoidable nowadays.
After closely reading a couple of these pieces, I decided to take a stance on the role technology plays in the relationships of our generation.
The biggest issue at hand seems to be the social publicity that “inevitably” comes with a relationship nowadays. The writers state how we have killed intimacy and romance with technology and while I do agree with that somewhat, I can’t say that it’s unavoidable.
The Internet and social media continue to blow up as technology develops and becomes more accessible. It’s become a casual activity to scroll through your apps and check up on pretty much anyone you’ve ever had the slightest social interactions with whenever you have time to kill. To our generation, this means any and every second we don’t have something in the real world keeping us busy.
We let these social media outlets run our lives and relationships, and according to these articles, it’s inescapable. But is it really?
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other kinds of technological communication have become something that young adults feel is necessary to have and use constantly. Why? Validity. People my age seem to have this false assumption that you have to share every thought, feeling, or special occasion that you celebrate with all of your followers and obviously this makes having privacy in a relationship difficult.
We are a generation that needs constant amusement. The real world isn’t interesting enough, so we turn to our iPhones for the latest updates on the daily lives of people we probably don’t even care about. Relationships seem boring because they’re practically virtual. We text and wait for texts. When we go on a date we tweet about it, check ourselves in on Facebook, and post a picture of it on Instagram talking about how great of a time it was even though we only looked up from our phones once or twice.
There’s no depth to anything because we let this consume us. Relationships, in some cases, have become nothing more than a Facebook “life event” so you can let everyone know someone actually is into you and you’re not single anymore. Special moments aren’t private memories anymore, they’re paragraph-long statuses so detailed that people can practically relive that very occurrence just by reading it.
If we can't even get through a date without entertaining ourselves on our phones, how can you expect to have a relationship with that person without being bored out of your mind?
The solution to all of this is actually much more simple than all of these bloggers make it out to be, don’t let your phones and computers rule you.
Compared to my past relationships, I definitely have minimized the amount of technology I use. While I do occasionally post a few photos, I have never been one to excessively share on social media the details about my relationship. You won’t find me posting anything longer than a few sentences about my boyfriend, what we do, or how much we care about each other. Why would I want to publicize that kind of stuff? I like the fact that those are moments and words that WE share, and they are special between us, and just us.
When we’re apart, we hardly ever text and I don’t feel threatened or jealous like people my age tend to be. It just isn’t necessary because I trust him and I know our lives don’t revolve around just each other. Constant virtual communication with anyone is bound to get boring eventually and that is a sure fire way to harm your relationship.
Just because the Internet and text messaging are becoming more accessible and easy to use doesn’t mean we need to use it incessantly. Even though we’re living in a time period of colossal changes, we can easily control what’s happening in regards to our personal and private lives by reducing the amount of information we share with the public. Yes, technology can come between couples, but don’t let it. It isn’t inevitable by any means.
