Social Media is one of the greatest breakthroughs that man has discovered in the 21st century. The platform is recently the favorite media numerous companies use in positioning global brands to the worldwide market. While it has made an unbelievable impact on marketing, advertising, and sales to many businesses, it also influences people in dealing with their day-to-day life as well their dating life.
Nowadays, various social media platforms and dating applications have unsurprisingly flourished. This unprecedented rise of dating apps transformed the way people meet each other wherever they are in the world.
The Unexpected Evolution Of Social Media
The evolution of social media has exceeded beyond our wildest dreams. Nowadays, it is easier to connect with our loved ones more than ever. Connecting with other people has risen above the traditional concept of privacy and even entered into the realm where everything can be announced to a global audience. Different social media outlets and dating apps blur the public and private lines online, as with our real-life interactions with others, especially dating. Twitter reveals our wit in 280 characters or less. Instagram photos portray our best-looking selves. Snapchat, on the other hand, digitally filters selfies to meet the look that we want for ourselves.
Dating apps like Bumble, Grindr, and Tinder to name a few, have redefined online dating in this age of social media. Profiles are modified and crafted to meet the standards that the digital world requires. Most of the time, people make their profiles based on the ways they want to be viewed creating deceptive images and information. The burgeoning influx of data available online can make the first date feel like a fourth date. With a quick scan on any one of your social media apps, one can compare oneself to another’s political and religious beliefs. Photos about your date’s previous relationships can be browsed online, giving you a window into their past.
Ease of access
Many singles are now browsing different dating apps and websites for potential dates and eventually, partners. Nowadays, even by just entering the phone number of a stranger you met at the coffee shop or at the bar might enable you to view their Instagram, Snapchat or other social media accounts. This could provide you with the limitless amount of information that is sometimes not necessarily needed. Family Psychotherapist Vanessa Marin, an expert in relationship coaching and sex therapy shared to observer the advantages and disadvantages of dating in social media.
Marin told The Observer that social media is not inherently bad but it depends on how you use them. She cited that if you are going to meet a total stranger, checking the name on Google could be a big help in securing that there is no any safety concern about your date. She added that the use of the Internet can even save any person from possibly numerous risky instances. Valeriya Safronova of The New York Times recently published an article about Instagram and how it has become a dating platform.
Safronova detailed that Instagram’s countless digital nuances are an easy medium to flirt with a possible love interest. She claimed that the app not only offers a visually driven collection of one’s life, it also provides a subtle way of expressing an interest through likes and comments. Users can also interact with other users through the direct message, which is a form of private chat. Moreover, Story cards also offer data to users about other users. This provides you with the information on who is obsessing you yesterday, today, and even tomorrow.
Is it worth it?
With the limitless opportunity to digitally partners online, the resounding question now is, is it really worth it? According to Vanessa Marin, the answer is most probably no. According to the Family Psychotherapist, it is still best to get to know your date personally and not through the Internet. She added that what you find online might not give you any context.
While we all want to remove people who are not good for us, it is easier to make judgments and remove someone who is actually a good person. When you want to date someone, try to avoid stalking their social media accounts. Personal information online could also lead you to misinterpretations and incorrect assumptions. It is always exciting to discover the human being in front of you. It certainly couldn’t hurt to follow some guidelines already laid out for you!
