Why do we need to post everything on social media? What impact does posting on social media have on our lives, our relationships? In October, British “Vogue” published an article by Chante Joseph titled “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?”. Which was both praised and criticized by the audience. The title of the article blew up on TikTok.
The typical reaction was that single girls felt seen and girls with boyfriends were offended. The article itself has nothing to do with having an embarrassing boyfriend but rather it examined why girls don’t post about their boyfriends more often or at all. The key points were that girls simply aren’t posting their boyfriends on social media for a variety of reasons. First, if they break up it would be publicly embarrassing for them. Another huge reason was that some female content creators would lose followers after posting their partner for the first time. The idea is that when they get a boyfriend their content won’t be as entertaining since having a boyfriend strips you from your freedom.
On the other hand, even when girls are posting their boyfriends on social media they fall into the hard or soft launch category. A soft launch includes posting a picture of you and your partner but intentionally excluding his face. For example, if you are out at dinner and take a photo of the setting or the meal but don’t include either of you in the photo. A hard launch is just posting a picture of you together on social media. This means the relationship is officially public. Regardless of the type of public announcement, the article highlights the fact that some people think a boyfriend lowers the online vibe and makes an influencer less likely to interact with their content and fans.
Personally, I don’t want to follow someone whose entire content is about their boyfriend. While there are some content creators such as Allison Kucharczyk, @alisonkuch, an American content creator who posts about her retired NFL husband, Isaac Rochell, as if he was her sugar daddy, it added humor to the content, instead of just talking about him. It gets annoying when someone’s whole personality is just about them and their boyfriend and their relationship.
This is especially true in real life when dealing with friends. It’s not that I don’t want to hear about him at all, but at the same time, I want to talk about you, not your boyfriend. Especially when your high school loves gossip and the high school mentality is to tie the girlfriend to whatever the partner does. For example, if your boyfriend got into a fight, you are immediately associated with violence and are now a part of that drama. Especially when they do something embarrassing, it can come back to bite you, this doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships but also friendships.
Although the idea of having and finding your person can be a lovely thought, it’s not realistic when you’re trying to think long term in high school, it’s less than 2% of marriages. I am not saying you shouldn’t try, but for most high schoolers there is dating for fun or dating for marriage. It’s a lot harder to find a person that isn’t going to be embarrassing at all. While being in a relationship can be fun and exciting, it’s so important to grow as a person first, before jumping into the dating pool.
