So the other day, a random guy messaged me on Instagram saying “you look so poetic”. Not going to lie, somebody associating me with poetry is pretty flattering for me. Now, simultaneously, some other random dude sends me a picture of his genitals. Well, we will never catch the drift of why guys think that it will make us fall for them, hence this shall remain a mystery. Anyway, furthermore, a college friend comes up and tells me that this boy from my college asked her for my Instagram profile and then later I found him sliding into my DMs to initiate a conversation.
Now, the fact that I am not a proponent of carrying out my ‘first’ conversations with unknown people online cuts me some slack for not replying to any of those dudes. Nevertheless, my point was that millennials and gen-z substantially depend upon Instagram for finding themselves their “better half”. And their interest in a person is, consciously or subconsciously, veiled in deep likes and thirst traps. For those of you who don’t know, deep likes are when somebody likes your old pictures (well, they are stalking you!).
It is evident that social media, particularly Instagram, has capitalized on our love life. I mean take my best friend for example. Her relationship is majorly dependent on Instagram ever since covid has ruined our lives. The old-fashioned way of dreaming about running into your potential soulmate in a grocery store or a library is somewhat gradually diminishing. Oh, how these movies have spoilt us! From mentioning that you are single in your bio to putting hashtags of your single life, people rely on Instagram. Swapping digits has become a big step into letting someone in your life. How insta-savvy of this generation!
The practice of sliding into DMs, deep likes, and thirst traps are just small steps to the relationship. Later comes the online honeymoon phase of posting each other’s pictures with “love quotes” as captions. Making your relationship “official” on social media because then how would the world know you are taken. This is not where it stops. There also comes a breakup span of posting sorrowful quotes and later comes the post-breakup ‘oh-i-don’t-need-anybody-i-am-enough’ period of rejuvenating your self-esteem after being terribly dumped by a guy you were obviously hotter than.
If you’re looking for ways to find your person on Instagram, run away. I am definitely not the person for that. I might as well make you antisocial with my introverted skills. But hey, try sliding into DMs sometimes ;)