Say it Louder: focus less on social media in relationships

Opinion editor Emma Crampton shares her thoughts on various topics in her weekly column.

Christi Lazutkin

Opinion editor Emma Crampton shares her thoughts on various topics in her weekly column.

Emma Crampton, Opinion Editor

Social media is typically a fairly big aspect in most people’s lives-especially teenagers. It tends to play a part in most everyday actions, including romantic relationships. This can be seen as a positive thing because of course it’s fun to post cute pictures of you and your significant other for everyone else to see. However, there are some downsides to the fact that social media plays such a huge role in most modern relationships.

First of all, social media in relationships becomes an issue when couples talk more over text than they do in person. For long distance relationships, there is not much of an option there, but FaceTime calls and just regular phone calls are much better for communication than texting. In fact, texting could even be ruining some social skills. People who use cell phones excessively could have trouble in social situations that require face-to-face conversation.

When it comes to relationships, communication is a vital aspect. Without communication (in any form), the relationship itself would not exist. While texting is an efficient way to talk to one another and is nice to use at times, if it comes to the point where you only text and never actually talk to each other, there’s a problem. It’s important for couples to be capable of talking to each other outside of their screen.

Another issue with cell phones and couples is all the aspects social media apps entail. Arguments in relationships often occur over someone liking another girl’s Instagram selfie-or something along the lines of that. Getting too caught up in what your partner does on social media is extremely tempting and easy to do, but can lead to many meaningless arguments. Additionally, someone may get upset that their partner doesn’t post enough pictures of them which can lead them to think they’re trying to hide their relationship from the outside world.

Young people in relationships are still trying to learn what qualities they want in a partner as they’re also trying to see how they act in certain situations that can only be experienced in a relationship. Teens should focus on those things rather than getting too caught up in social media.