If you’ve had a look at our about page you can see what the blogs will be about; Romance in the age of social media.
However, to come back to the promise I’ve made on that page, I will not be cheesing. The blogs will have several topics, all synchronic to a real relationship; From finding that person -who does not text back at first- to making it Facebook Official and all the way up to using the internet as a cheattool or to do other naughties. (P.S.: If none of this is applicable to you then God bless your heart and your perfect relationship).
Technology has undoubtedly influenced the way we look at relationships, and relationships itself, for better -uhum, sexting when you’ve got a long distance thing going on, hells yas!- or worse; no real communication.
“Romance has become undermined by the concept of social media and online dating sites. It has surpassed the physical, intimate attraction and connectedness between two individuals. We have come to see it as an illusion” – The Odyssee Online.
Would not our dating life be so much better if we were still living in the 50’s? Fair enough, we still have milkshakes and racism and everything is probably more convenient with technology, but think about it. Our grandfathers would ask the girl from down the hall out, go for a milkshake and an outside movie, meet her parents and be married to her within no time. First off, how weird is it to meet someone’s parents the same night you met them? And second, how bizarre is it to even think about marrying that annoying boy from down the block! Comedian Aziz Ansari mentions a study in his book ‘Modern Romance’, from a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania which showed that 1 out of 6 couples had lived within the same block before getting married and one out of every 8 had even lived in the same building!
One reason it’s so hard to imagine marrying the people we grew up with is that these days we marry much later than people in previous generation – Aziz Ansari.
Which brings me right to it. To make it a bit personal, I’ll give you a peek from my view. I am 21 years old, which means that I’m at the most awkward age. Half of my friends are pledging to stay single as long as they haven’t met the one person that is up to their standards, and the other half are settling down, getting engaged and/or even getting married. To be honest, I’m probably in the first category; staying single. One of the reasons I’m still single is because I refuse to settle for less. This is the difference between us, youngsters, and our grandparents. We refuse to settle because we know how far we can go. Why go on one -good- Tinder-date and marry the guy right away when we have got a whole database and a whole life full of potential soulmates? But if my granddad would not hit it off with that girl from down the block, he would settle down with the girl from two blocks away.
“People would go as far as they have to find a mate, but no farther” – J. Ellsworth Jr., sociologist.
Sometimes I do envy my friends that settled for less but are still in a happy relationship, or my grandparents. Because our generation, Generation Z, has too much choice. And too much choice leads to not choosing.