You have 0 items in your cart
How many times have you read a relationship quote online and allowed it to alter the way you feel about your own relationship? Relationships are scrutinised on the internet every single day, and subconsciously we digest every single quote and mindless statement that we read.
Whether it be a photo with words in italic stated as fact, or someone on Facebook sharing their love advice, we all react in either one of two ways; feeling discouraged about our relationship, or feeling satisfied with our situation. But why do we let the internet affect our mindset so much? Why do we believe that because it’s stated on a black canvas, or splashed over Twitter, that we should take it as gospel?
According to Pew Internet, 10 percent of internet users who are married or partnered think that the internet has had a ‘major impact’ on their relationship. Of course we shouldn’t let the internet determine the way we feel about our partners, but sadly the majority of us do. We daily come across cryptic quotes such as ‘not receiving a message is also a message’ and human instinct instantly tells us to compare our relationship. We second guess the state of our love lives and overthink the possibility that our partner doesn’t message us enough. Or contrastingly, the quote could build a false sense of achievement if we believe our relationships are communicative and don’t suffer from said problem. But the reality of it is that we shouldn’t be basing our relationships around meaningless pieces of text that set impossible expectations for us. We shouldn’t be feeling pressures and a sense of invalidation when our relationships aren’t living up to the standards being painted online.
So, next time we stumble upon an artistic photo with some words scribbled across it, we should teach ourselves to take a step back from the situation and not take words to heart. We should teach ourselves to remember that not every single relationship is the same and that no two people work in the same way. Some people are communicative; some people are not. Some people are affectionate; some not so much. Putting it into such simple terms seems so black and white, but it’s really how we ought to think about things. Quotes are useful, sometimes inspiring, but they cannot tarnish a thousand relationships with the same brush.
