Now that all of the hype surrounding “Couch Guy” has died down, let’s talk about how weird that really was.
If you’re unfamiliar with this whole scenario, let me give you a quick run-down. On September 21st, @laurenzarras uploaded a video on TikTok of her surprising her long-distance boyfriend, Robbie. A harmless video of what was meant to be a heartfelt moment shared between a couple has somehow received over 64.7 Million views, 5.3 million likes, countless hate comments, and the hashtag “couch guy” has since accumulated 1.4 billion views through all the videos under this tag as of November 30th. So what exactly went wrong?
Within the tik tok we see Lauren walk into what we assume to be a university dorm room with a suitcase in hand. Before her boyfriend spots his surprise visitor, he is seen sitting on a couch next to two girls. When she walks in we see him get up and hug her while “Still Falling For You” by Ellie Goulding plays in the background. Cute, right? The internet seemed to disagree. Somehow this less than a 30-second clip of a cute surprise had all of TikTok convinced that Lauren’s boyfriend was cheating on her, and boy did they try to prove it.
TikTok detectives quickly took to slowing down clips, zooming in, speaking with ‘body language’ experts, and recreating the scene to prove Robbie’s cheating scandal. The theories ran wild based on the fact that Robbie was seen sitting next to those two girls previously mentioned. Users claimed that they could see Robbie pass a phone back to one of the girls or that one girl had her head resting on Robbie’s shoulder. This was all, of course, speculation. But, TikTok took this and ran with it. “Couch Guy” quickly became a viral sensation with millions of people weighing in on the debate of whether or not he was cheating. It became a meme for couples to recreate the exact scenario and have the “Couch Guy” looking completely uninterested or obviously cheating in front of the other party.
Now that you have the full story, let’s get into why this is a problem. When people post on TikTok, you never know how far your video is going to reach. It could get ten views or it could get ten thousand due to a rather random algorithm on TikTok as for what goes viral and what doesn’t. So every time you post, there is that risk of your video reaching far more people than you intended, but nobody posts a video and expects it to get as much attention as this one received. Going viral has been romanticized and even idolized by our generation, but there are much darker sides to it that, unfortunately, Lauren and Robbie were subjected to.
Imagine how it must feel to have the entire internet weighing in on whether or not your significant other is cheating on you. This would obviously take a toll mentally and I can’t imagine it had no effect at all on their relationship. One of the issues with social media is that yes, it gives people the tools to express their opinions and they have every right to do so, but it also makes every user feel as though they are entitled to comment on issues that you would otherwise never say to a person’s face. Millions of people believed that they knew everything about these two peoples’ relationship just based off of a 30-second clip, and they judged not only Robbie but Lauren as well. That video and every video posted after that included her boyfriend is flooded with comments such as “why are you still with him,” “we tried to warn you,” “girl what is wrong with you leave him,” and countless more condescending comments on the matter.
I have a lot of respect for both parties involved for keeping their cool and continuing to live their lives without letting the internet influence their relationship. As far as I can tell, both are still together and seem perfectly happy. And even if this wasn’t the case, well it’s not really much of our business is it?
Sure, “Couch Guy” was a funny meme and it was interesting to see all of the internet come together on one topic, but at the end of the day, we have to remember these are real people behind the screens. As corny as it may sound, it really is best to remind yourself to be kind and respectful even online where actions feel like they may have no consequences.