Chiugo Akaolisa: 4 Reasons Why Hashtag Relationships Might Not Be the Best

We can literally tell someone’s location, social standing, relationship status and mental state by a single Instagram picture. Amazing right?

Technology has gotten that advanced and we, as creatures of interest, are loving every minute of it. I mean, why spend months of building trust and sharing personal details with someone when we can just check out their social media account and find out the information in seconds? Duh!

In this age of social media, it is enticing to display your achievements to the world and while your posts are filled with a few hundred likes and shares, they are also open to heavy scrutiny; especially your relationship status…that stuff is just a gold mine.

Check out some Instagram captions: Me and Bae #togetherforever #cantbreakus #lovesoreal.

For the more dramatic ones: Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same #EmilyBronte #Soulmates #fairytalelove #cosmiclove.

I live for the hashtags!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with sharing your love story with the world. Everybody loves a good inspiration to make them keep the faith but make sure you are doing it for all the right reasons. As long as things are as rosy on the inside as they look from the outside, then carry on.

Personally, I opt for keeping relationships PRIVATE with minimal social media attention. I am that old-fashioned. People will still camp out in your business, but why help them by giving them intimate details? In my opinion, it is not okay for someone else to know every aspect of your relationship; or even have an influence on how you choose to handle the ups and downs. Notice that I didn’t use the word “secret”. If nobody knows you two are together, then it may very well be all in your head.

Here are a few more reasons to choose subtlety above all else:

Monitoring Spirits
If you don’t know this, there are people whose morning newspaper include your Instagram and Twitter pages. They scrutinize every post of yours so as to have juicy conversation topics. They don’t need to be accurate, they just need to have something to say and pictures to prove it. This is how gist spreads and pray it is nothing that can hurt your relationship. We battle not against flesh and blood.

Insta-Famous
when your relationship is very public, your face becomes recognizable which means that there are certain things you can no longer get away with. If you decide to smile at someone other than your partner (innocent or not), there are a good number of people you have just given a good story. Thank you!

Bad-belle
There are people who will never be happy for you. If your partner is a heavy spender, good-looking or exceptionally loving, some will wish they were in your shoes and then there are the more ambitious ones who will do everything possible to make that a reality. They would never have known what to fight for if you didn’t show them.

Trouble in Paradise
There will definitely be those bad pictures, subs, or encrypted messages that people will misconstrue as trouble in paradise. If you don’t want people mourning your relationship before it ends, then keep it out of their feeds.

Relationships are to be treated with the utmost respect and sensitivity. You should not look to others to validate your life choices. It is hard enough to maintain a healthy bond with someone different from you without having external influences. You may be able to handle the scrutiny but what about your partner and all the people related to him/her. Look at the bigger picture, it is not about you anymore.

Remember, invisibility is a superpower.

Goodluck!
Photo Credit: blogs.ugo.co.ug