Love in the Modern Age: What has Changes Since the 80s?

Valentine’s day is coming up and love is in the air. Love has varied intensely since the caveman era. It used to be all about survival and reproduction, then it became about power and hierarchy. Love can influence people to do crazy things, like beheading their wives. These days, it’s more about connection and finding someone who you love to spend time with.

The digital age is upon us, and relationships are changing as a consequence. Social media can be a great tool, it allows for more communication and constant interaction. Internet users worldwide are connected and can interact at the click of a button. With that comes the drawbacks of constant connection. We have all found ourselves checking the instagram account of the person we like. Followers, comments, and likes can become addictive to stalk.

Snapchat has become like a dating app for horny teenagers. Terms like “wyll warrior” and “group snapper” fly around like accusations. The world of quick add and snap maps can be confusing and overwhelming for many. The easy access to user’s locations on snapchat can be a dangerous feature. Constantly checking someone’s location and wanting to know what people are doing at all times is an unhealthy habit that has been adopted by many.

When asked about the availability of location services, senior Jada Pulsipher says:

“It ruins the romance and aspect of surprise in a relationship. Sometimes my boyfriend surprises me by bringing me flowers, but I see his location at Trader Joe’s beforehand so it’s not really a surprise.” Jada also commented on overuse of public social media profiles. She says “It’s not good for people to be obsessed with checking someone’s social media. That’s also something that ruins romance, it’s good to keep an element of mystery and surprise and that’s destroyed by the constant attention to Instagram and Snapchat profiles.”

You might think that romance and relationships would be better off without the constant attention to social media and communication. This is true in some ways, but love before the age of cell phones wasn’t always a perfect fairytale. Rachel Epstein, a professor at the University of Denver was born in Portland in 1970. This means that she attended high school in the late 80s, before the internet was even a thought. She says: “I remember that most houses growing up only had one landline, this meant that when someone called, everyone in my household knew. They would always ask me: ‘Are you interested in him?’ ‘Is that your boyfriend?’’ Although there was much less obsession with communication, it was harder to communicate when it was needed.

Sometimes it can be easy to yearn for simpler times. Although there were definitely advantages to living in a world before social media, we should embrace the current technology without becoming too obsessed and addicted.