Showing love on social media
Social media and apps play a vital role in how couples express their feelings and affection for each other, writes Hanum Afandi
DESPITE its ill repute, social media is not all that bad. On many occasions, it has connected families and friends as well as created camaraderie with strangers. And when it comes to spreading love and happiness, social media is the best.
Let’s see how four couples celebrate the day of love using social media.
SPARKING ROMANCE
Gan Jian Jie and Goe Ying Ying, both 26, deem showcasing their love through social media as the best way to spark romance.
“She was my Biology classmate in 2014 and we became a couple on Aug 28. Social media helps link us together since it safeguards our precious moments from way back then and it’s a good platform to tell others about our relationship,” said Gan.
Other couples like Jeffery Ng, 25, and Lam Kar Mun, 24, are on the same page, saying that expressing their love on social media makes their partners feel appreciated. However, Denise Chua and Terry Khor, both 26, have a different take on it.
“Though I enjoy using Instagram (IG), people never expose their darkest parts and struggles publicly. Only the highlights are shown, making people see us through rose-coloured glasses.
“I’ve seen people using IG reels, video editing software and special effects on their timelapse video of their moments together. It’s a great way to create lifestyle content on social media,” said Chua.
Abigail Priyatharsini, 28, and Isaac Premnadh, 31, said that it was nice to see friends express love for their partners through social media as it was a platform that they use.
EDITING APPS
There are many ways to get creative on social media.
Abigail and Isaac primarily use Canva and VSCO to create collages and beautiful photos of each other while retaining some hilarious accents in silly ones.
Gan and Goe would refresh past Instagram Stories and retake pictures together to compare with the old ones. Even Facebook has a similar function to reshare in posts.
“For editing, I use Instagram Camera, CapCut for templates, StoryLab for Stories template, InShot for video and image editing as well as the Snow app for filters,” Gan explained.
Chua and Khor believe that certain moments should be shared only among themselves.
“My boyfriend and I believe that exposing our lives on social media can be overwhelming. Instead of writing long captions, we’d rather say those sweet words to each other privately and only share photos of us with simple captions and emojis. Nothing too elaborate,” she said.
“We use VSCO and Snapseed for that minimalistic theme that complements my Instagram feed,” she said.
Ng and Lam would post their presents, video calls and selfie throwbacks on their social media with sweet captions added.
Challenges
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, some couples had to celebrate Valentine’s Day while being apart. However, it didn’t deter them from showering affection in other ways.
“Due to the pandemic, we’ve been celebrating Valentine’s Day by video calling and sending presents bought online to each other for two years now. I also made an animated video of our photos together as a memory,” said Ng.
For Gan and Goe, Covid-19 was nothing compared with the three Valentine’s Day they missed due to internships, exchange programmes and waiting for their Form Six results.
“Aside from video calling, I usually bring my gifts to her once we meet or have her roommate pass them to her. After so many years celebrating it, we’ve decided to get married on Valentine’s Day,” said Gan.
For Abigail and Isaac, celebrating their relationship has not been an issue as they have been together for the past five years.
“We set the tone on what we share when it comes to social media. Oversharing will invite others to pry into our lives and using it as the main method of showing love instead of spending time together may affect the relationship,” said Abigail.