“Oh my gosh I’m going to tweet that,” “It’s Facebook official,” “Why won’t she post that we are in a relationship on Facebook?” and “I’m not in any of his Instagram pictures. Does he really love me?” are all expressions we hear from our friends, cousins and sometimes even our parents. Social media dictates the relationships in our lives.
About five years ago, before Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube became popular, I could have sworn I saw more couples engaged in physical interaction, but ever since the start of those fabulous four social networks, public displays of affection have substantially decreased.
Now I’m not saying that relationships have ceased to exist, but the way to show your affection for your significant others has changed. PDA is displayed in a completely new medium I like to call social displays of affection—SDA.
Day in and day out our news feeds are flooded with the interactions of couples, whether it be sending hearts and smiley faces or cute messages or pictures of their latest trips to Disneyland.
With our generation there are numerous ways to share your relationship status via the Internet, Facebook being the most common. With just the click of a button you can let all 700 of your “closest” friends know whether you are in a relationship, engaged, married, single or, my personal favorite, whether or not “it’s complicated.”
For some people, sharing this type of information on social networks is just further declaration of their love—others see it as an invasion of privacy.
“I think people put their relationship status on social network sites to showcase their love for each other,” public relations junior Alejandra Alonso said. “I don’t see it as a bad thing. I never have. I say ‘Let them do what they want, and if they feel good about it, then good for them.’”
For Alonso, social media is merely another outlet where she can show her significant other her love.
“If it’s not on Facebook, it’s not official,” Alonso said.
However psychology junior Adam Stover feels differently about displaying his affection on social media sites.
“I don’t think you have to put your status on Facebook,” Stover said. “It’s everyone’s choice to whom they disclose their personal information to. But I do think a lot of people make posts for attention, and that gets annoying, especially when people are having full-on Twitter or Facebook fights.”
Not all posts stem from couples in love, however. There are posts from irate boyfriends or girlfriends. Twitter wars among couples have become a staple in our generation and though it’s embarrassing for the two people involved, for the innocent bystanders it’s quite entertaining.
With indirect comments such as “God, why is my boyfriend being so annoying?” and “I wish my girlfriend would just shut up,” it’s no wonder sites such as Lamebook, a regularly updated blog that re-posts everything lame and funny from Facebook, are thriving.
Accounting sophomore Gail Capati believes that PDA on social networks can be a good thing, as long as you maintain a balance.
“I think PDA on social networks is cute and really sweet,” Capati said. “But obviously too much of anything gets really annoying.”
Capati also went on to share that she is an extremely private person, so she wouldn’t make it “Facebook official” until after a couple of months when she and her boyfriend are both completely comfortable.
Social media is a great way to show your love for someone else or in many ways, to get closer to your significant other, but one should share all things in moderation. It’s important to remember that every single one of your Facebook friends or Instagram and Twitter followers, including family members, can see your pictures and statuses so act accordingly. Just like Blogger Little Miss Melbourne said, “Kiss like no one is watching, post like everyone is.” Frankly the way you choose to show your affection is up to you, but the question still remains, is Social Media the new PDA?
