Letter to the Editor: Social Media Hurts Relationships

Dear Editor,

While scrolling through social media with my friends, I realized how much emphasis is placed on couples online. There were many cute posed couple photos that were meant to be envied on my feed. Aside from the extensive effort most likely placed on taking those photos, there was a lot of talk of the photos between my friends and myself. They would say things along the lines of “I wish my boyfriend, and I could take pictures like this,” or even “I wish I had a boyfriend to take pictures with.”

This sounds like a normal conversation, but should placing romantic relationships at such a superficial level be normal? Society has begun judging their relationships on staged photographs, and on couples that only put their best selves out there. Some may argue that’s what everyone does on social media, but what happens to relationships when social media sets the expectations too high, and real-life romantic relationships can’t keep up?

Couples today are hurting far too much due to the pressure social media places on romantic relationships. They feel the need to look cute on social media, instead of feeling the need to build a genuine relationship with one another. The pressure to appear perfect on screen leaves couples fighting over social media appearances, the other partner’s social media use, and even over the lack of connection. Social media’s influence on romantic relationships is killing healthy relationships, and leaving individuals feeling more alone in a relationship than ever before.

Haley Knighten

B.S. Chemical Engineering

Class of 2020