According to Pew Research Center (2015), 45% of college students say they use social media to show how much they care about their partner and relationship. Posting photos with your partner helps validate the relationship, but senior Darius Smith and sophomore Sam Seymour don’t feel it’s necessary to prove you love them. 

Smith and Seymour met in a program during the summer of 2020. Eventually, the two started hanging out and became close friends in a friend group. As the friend group separated, Smith and Seymour drifted closer together and began dating over the winter break of 2020. 

“Our connection is like no other because of the friendship we had before we started dating,” said Smith. 

Smith and Seymour are members of the Piedmont track team and work together on campus at the rock wall in the Student Commons. Aside from running and working together, the couple spends lunch and dinner together and attempts to go on dates as often as possible. The couple’s favorite activities to do together are cooking, rock climbing, and watching tv. Spending almost every second of every day together it is uncommon to see one without the other.

Even though the two spend a great deal of time together, phone time on social media does get in between. According to PsychCentral.com, the average college student spends between eight and 10 hours on their phone. Smith and Seymour don’t use social platforms to express the details of their relationship. Instead, the two use social networking for entertainment, to communicate with one another, and sometimes others online. Influencers on apps like Tik Tok and Instagram help viewers with suggestions of places to eat, travel, and activities to do which Smith and Seymour utilize.

“Throughout the day, we send each other Tik Toks of stuff we want to do or foods we want to cook together,” said Seymour.  

Posting on social media is not a large part of Smith and Seymour’s relationship but is still a part of it. Some individuals post their relationships online to signal to others they’re off the market. Rather than posting to keep up with and gain societal approval, Seymour notes she posts specifically for Smith to see and comment on and brag to followers on her page. 

“Sometimes when I post, I just feel really cute and confident, and it’s more to brag to other people I have a man, so you can’t have me,” said Seymour. 

When you include a significant other in a post, it increases feelings of intimacy and satisfaction. When a partner sees the post, it could help the relationship if the post is seen as embracive and inclusive. A commonality for posting a photo with a significant other is to ward off others who might try to come in between. On the other hand, some individuals believe postings and tagging your partner is unhealthy codependency. People who engage in these common types of social media relationship displays tend to be more satisfied with their relationship. Affirmed by Pew Research Center, 45% of social media users in committed relationships say social networking sites have had a negative impact on their relationship due to debates regarding posting each other. Sharing glimpses of the joy in your relationship on social platforms is not a problem. Ultimately, when deciding whether to post or not to post your partner, couples should consider who and why they are posting to prevent overdoing it.