Today’s social media savvy generation has done away with the “ligawan” and “haranahan” phase that our parents and grandparents used to enjoy. With apps and sites like Facebook, Snapchat, and Tinder – all it takes is a swipe right to get started with a conversation. But with such an impulsive action that takes just a few seconds – is it really possible to fall in love right there and then?
A study from New York University entitled “Relationship Formation in the Internet: What’s the Big Attraction?” by McKenna et. al., states that people who find potential partners in social media tend to be attracted initially due to the similarities that they have for each other. “The study used the term “attraction” as they found out that people’s perspectives only fall at this level on the first time they see a person. Relationship expert Jackie Pilossoph adds to this from her Huffington Post blog by saying “While I am sure that you think you are in love, you are not.
Until the two of you get your bodies into the same room for a certain amount of time, you won’t know if you love each other.”
So with these – are social media initiated relationships confined only within the internet and thus will be doomed to fail? Fear not – as there’s still hope. Referring back to the study from by McKenna and her team – “Important relationships also become aspects of one’s identity, and people should then be motivated to make their important new relationships a social reality, that is, to bring them into their ‘real lives’, to make them public, and face to face.” So should you get a chance to meet the person you spend hours on social media with in real life, that’s the time you can gauge if he/she is the right person to spend the rest of your life with.
References:
http://www.jrichardstevens.com/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/
