In a world dominated by relationships and the pressure of companionship it can sometimes be hard to remember who you are and that it is okay to not be in a relationship.

In the media, news outlets report about couples being together, getting divorced or who is hooking up with who. On social media, not a day goes by in your 20s without seeing someone being engaged or posting the picture of their new, extravagant gift their significant other gave them.  People feel the need to validate their relationships on social media to show the world who they have and that no one else can have them.  They want to brag about their relationship to show their old friends what happened when they quit coming around because their “lover” didn’t approve of hanging out on Friday nights without them.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, the race is on to find a significant other, get them the same chocolates Zayn Malik is going to buy Gigi Hadid, or for single people to deal with the harassment of couples wanting to pair you up with one of their friends.

Why can’t single people embrace being single instead of being shamed because they don’t sleep with the same exact person every night? Why can’t they instead, show the world that they are able to do things without having to worry about responding to a text, or if their “other half” is hanging out with someone that you have an iffy past with? Our generation is obsessed with finding someone before turning 25 and being able to post their engagement pictures before they even go through the editing stage. It doesn’t help with reports of Nick Jonas’ love life being mentioned every other E! News article or how many times John Legend and Chrissy Teagen were #relationshipgoals.

The media does not create stories, they shape them. In entertainment journalism, the focus on public figures’ relationships are considered newsworthy. Why, you ask? That I don’t know the answer. But, most people are certainly interested about those topics than about what is going on over in Syria, which is terribly sad. 

All I know is that in order for your relationship to be validated in this day and age, you must post three Snapchat stories a day of your significant other doing something “cute”, a woman crush Wednesday/man crush Monday post every week and a nice, lengthy Facebook status about how they helped you tie your shoe when you were too tired to bend down and do it. 
Desmond can be contacted at [email protected].