The Case of the FBOs

Relationships are delicate. Some couples will enter into a courtship before they actually decide to date or get engaged. Others will casually date or “date around”. A more common trend that is occurring on college campuses across the country is “hooking up”. I feel that over the years dating has become more popular and less serious.

            From generation to generation, dating has adapted just as style and technology has. We no longer have to use party lines to get ahold of our significant others. In Pride and Prejudice, the daughters have to write letters if they wanted to keep in touch with the man the liked or had to ride horseback to visit. Our boyfriends and girlfriends are now just a text or car ride away.

            Another significant change in the way we date is through social networking. I have recently started dating and nowhere on my Facebook could you find that I have done so. Is it true that being “Facebook Official” is the only way a relationship is official?

            No, it’s not. This Facebook generation is plagued by the idea that that is the only way it could possibly be real. How did Adam and Eve possibly know it was official without Facebook telling them so?

            I do not think there is anything wrong with the concept of putting your relationship status on this social networking site but the idea that a relationship is not real because it is not on there is a problem.

            Then there are those people who interrupt their wedding so they can take the time to get on their phone to change their status. There is time for that later, I promise. Facebook does not deserve the time it is given; you should be entranced by the person that is standing in front of you.

            When I began telling my friends that I was dating, some of their first questions were “Is it Facebook official yet?” What does that even mean? I even had someone tell me it was not official simply for the fact it was not on there. Does my word not count over Facebook’s?

            Facebook has even adapted its site to accompany the many different types of relationships we have. You can now be listed as single, in a relationship, engaged, married, it’s complicated, in an open relationship, widowed, separated, divorced, in a civil union, or in a domestic partnership. I have chosen the route of not having any relationship status listed.

            Why do we feel the need to have our relationship status for the world to see? Is it because we really like the person and we want the world to know? Do we do it out of obligation? Facebook is not the problem. The problem is our balance between reality and virtual reality. What is real in the end? Be who you are, not what other people think you should be. Most of all in your relationships.