Staff Says

In this day and age, technology is easily accessible and quite often influences our lives, whether we realize it or not. Scrolling through your Instagram feed or watching a cheesy rom-com may seem like an innocent activity, but it can be impactful. It can be easy to want what others have, such as relationships, especially when they seem so perfect in the media. This raises the question: do we really want these things, or are we only looking for them because we feel as though we “need” them to fit in?

The majority of The Dart staff believe that the media does create an added pressure to pursue a relationship in high school. It is one thing to see glamorous celebrities in these seemingly-perfect relationships, but seeing your fellow classmates and their significant others plastered on your Instagram is more of a personal wake-up call and social media can make us feel as though we “can’t” do certain activities without a s/o, especially around the holidays.

However, staff members also agree that when we see these relationships in real life, the glitz and glamor can fade away. In person, we realize that these people are just like us, no different. Social media can sometimes make us feel like we need to be in a relationship in order to feel happy and fulfilled, but is that really true? Oftentimes many of us only ask guys to Teresian or Prom not because of a romantic interest, but because our friends may be dating someone and we don’t want to be the awkward ‘“ third wheel.”’

At the end of the day, being in a relationship does not define you. Who you date and when should not be influenced by outside factors. Social media is not an accurate portrayal of others’ lives, and while it may be difficult to do at times, it’s probably in our best interests to try to take it all with a grain of salt.