As millenials, we are addicted to displaying our lives on the Internet. Literally. We spend hours poring over our Instagram accounts, deciding what filter to add to that picture of you and your bestie at Quixote’s, updating our Twitter with a snarky commentary on the people campaigning on the concourse, and showing off every aspect of our lives to everyone else (well, at least the good aspects of our lives).
Valentine’s Day is one of the absolute worst days for social media updates. Besides the days of big football games or Christmas, V-Day is one of the most prominent days of the year for unnecessary status updates and pictures that fall flat to their Insta audience.
The thing is, Valentine’s Day is a touchy subject for everyone. The single people don’t want to see updates proclaiming the glories of the romantic love their lives lack, and the people in couples don’t want to see updates about how much single life sucks (or rules, if you are totally loving being single on V-Day). Here are a few general guidelines to not posting things that make your follower count go down on Valentine’s Day.
1. I promise, nobody wants to see that picture of you making out with your boyfriend. Nobody. We know you love him, and you want to show your love to the world, but pics with his tongue down your throat and his hands in questionable places don’t appeal to your Internet audience. Also, keep in mind that potential employers can see this stuff too!
Instead: Post a cute pic of you and your boo all dressed up and ready to go on a date. People are much more likely to double-tap a photo if there’s less liplocking and more cuteness!
2. If you post tons of pictures of your V-Day gifts that your SO got you, you might be overdoing it. Your followers do not need to see every box of chocolate, a close-up of the dozen roses he got you, the dinner you ate, the movie stub for 50 Shades of Grey, the cheesy teddy bear, and the 20 other things that made your Valentine’s Day so perfect. This is pretty much the social media equivalent of that girl in high school who paraded around the giant stuffed animal and the balloon bouquet she got from the football player in first period.
Instead: Post one photo of the big gift, and leave out the essay-length caption proclaiming your love to your bae and how wonderful your day was. Or, leave off posting photos of the things you got altogether! Valentine’s Day should be a celebration of love, not a celebration of how many roses and stuffed animals you’re going to have in your room, and definitely not a celebration of how much more stuff you got than other people.
This might be a little too much.
3. “Happy Valentine’s Day? More like Singles Awareness Day! LOL XD” This status is pretty much saying “I like people to think I love being single, but really I would date any guy that looks at me for more than two seconds.” Trust me, I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this exact status myself. This joke is overplayed, old news, and it really is just S.A.D.
Instead: Leave out this update, or replace it with something that you’re doing instead of hanging out with a date- like pampering yourself with a hot bubble bath, or going out with your girlfriends, or any of these other great ideas! Most of all, remember that even though you feel painfully single this year, remember that there is always the potential for next year to be the lovey-doviest Valentine’s Day you’ve had yet!
4. “I’m so glad I don’t have a boyfriend this V-Day! #singlelife #singleladies” Okay, we get it. You love your single life, and you want everyone to know it. But to people in relationships this just looks sad, and to people who are also single, it looks a little desperate too.
Instead: Revel in your singleness in real life! If you really do love being single on V-Day, don’t post quippy statuses about it, just do it! Go out and make out with that hot guy from your Biology class and never text him again, have a ladies’ night with your other single gal pals and have a double feature of Mean Girls and Bridesmaids, and live your single life to the fullest!
On the other hand, please do post stupidly cheesy valentines to your friends’ walls on Facebook.
With all these steps, here’s to hoping you’ve got a V-Day that will increase your follower count, and decrease the amount of people that dislike your Valentine’s Day media!
Have any other social media tips for holidays? Let us know in the comments!