“Courting is one of those old fashioned words that no longer fits comfortably into today’s vocabulary. It invokes images of couples holding hands in an age of sex-free innocence. But, then, as in now, it is still about the search for ‘That Special Someone’. And, today, there may be no need for such physical contact as ‘hand holding’, as falling in love with your significant other can be done over the Internet.” This was the beginning of an article on “Love In An Internet Age: Real or Virtual”. – https://pridemagazineng.com/love-in-an-internet-age/
The issue one wants to examine in this article is: should we not conduct our personal love life with the privacy it deserves instead of giving the whole world chapter and verse – day to day accounts of how our love life is progressing through social media platforms.
I am really at a loss why we want to “from the tree top” or should I say, update all available platforms on how our love life is progressing. Is it that innately we are given to be exhibitionists, or is it that most of us are doing it because others are doing it and we don’t want to feel left out? The bandwagon effect has taken over and we are all discussing our private lives in public glare.
But these same technologies that we keep advertising our relationships on can also be the agent for undoing. An aspect of living a relationship online is the break-up. Ideally, this should be done in person. Now some people take the easy option and do it by text, or simply by changing their relationship status on Facebook. People feel protected behind a screen; they are immune to the other person’s feelings.
Quoting from the same article referred to above: “In ‘physical’ relationships, you can spray the perfume when it is given to you, and if you eventually part ways, there is the ceremonious “return of the stuff” – CDs, photos, jewelry, clothes left at your place. There is no constant reminder of the texts, Instant Messages, Tweets, Facebook pictures and Instagram posts. And that’s a lot harder to get rid of than your clothes from his/her place. Love might die, but its digital counterpart never does. There’s just no way to completely erase your digital self from a relationship in 2015, no quick way to sever digital ties once they’ve been formed and no easy way to tell your social media networks that you’re no longer together. Of course you can untag, but for those who’ve shared a lot, the digital impression of your days together remains very much alive.”
Our social networking trails are an exceptionally intimate digital diary that individuals allow just about anybody to click through. This is indeed a cautionary tale. Every one should consider carefully the future consequences of their “INTERNET LOVE STORY” and having done so, may decide that the part of wisdom dictates that you do a careful edit of what you post on the various media platforms.