As I scroll through my Instagram, I see yet another couple holding hands into a sunset in some exotic location. The Internet, and social media, especially, has taught me that pictures and relationships should look a certain way to gain popularity. Almost all social media relationships seem so perfect and has always made me question my relationship and myself, as a partner.
I remember being in middle school searching things online such as, “how to make your crush like you”, or “how to be the perfect girlfriend”, ah the innocence. The truth is that there is no such set-in stone way to make these things happen. The internet has placed this stigma on relationships where couples should buy each other gifts, never argue, and everything looks like a fairytale. I can tell you first-hand this is not the case.
Now that I am older, the puppy love relationship has turned into feeling pressured to participate in sexual activities because “everyone is doing it”. Cosmopolitan, for example, has numerous articles and magazines on things like “The Ultimate Sex Position Guide” and “7 Fifty Shades Darker Sex Positions to Satisfy Your Inner Goddess””. While these articles can be great for people wanting to spice things up in the bedroom like Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, it is not for everyone.
Almost everything I have learned about relationships, sex, and love has come from my own personal experiences. I do not feel the need to search online things like “how to please him” or “what sex for the first time should be like”. The last person/thing that I want telling me how to live my life or how things in relationships should be, is the Internet. I would be lying if I said I have never searched something on the internet about relationships or sex, but I prefer to live my life through my own experiences.
Literature & the Internet 