Relationship Steps in the Modern Digital Age
Once upon a time, the steps in a relationship went as follows: first date, in love, dating, living together, engaged, married, babies. Nowadays, it might still be a bit like that, but there are all kinds of steps added that say at least as much as saying “I love you” for the first time. Not surprising either, we spend all day behind screens, so those things are also going to play major roles in the realm of love. Contemporary relationship steps go as follows.
From Tinder to Facebook to Whatsapp
If you met each other on Tinder, the first step is to look each other up on Facebook and chat further there. With a friend request as a result, of course. Then you move on to a more efficient medium, exchange numbers, and the big flirting game on Whatsapp.
Favorites list
After chatting comes calling (at least for me, I love calling. Unlike others.) and then comes the moment when it's too much hassle to keep looking up his number, so you add him to your favorites. Among your best friends and family then.
Liking photos
Is also a huge thing. When are you going to like each other's photos on Facebook or Instagram? Liking is enjoying, both the person and the photo. Moreover, others see that too, and those are the first steps towards The Biggest Step: together on Facebook. But we are not there yet.
Adding each other's friends
The dates pile up, and then at some point, you reach the stage where you also start meeting each other's friends. An important phase; someone with stupid friends can't be fun themselves, and vice versa, if his friends don't like you, you're going to have a damn hard time. Let's assume everything goes smoothly and you see the friends more and more often, then there comes a point where you start adding them on Facebook. I always found that very nice, when my love interest started adding my girlfriends. One big happy online family!
Wifi
“Home is where the wifi connects automatically,” so there comes a point where you can't afford to keep using your 3G to be at his place. And then you get his wifi password and he gets yours, and actually, that's the new having each other's house keys.
Whatsapp groups
With his friends, with your friends, with everyone. Together being in a Whatsapp group is incredibly being together, with the ultimate highlight being the family Whatsapp group. Most families have their own Whatsapp group where partners will never come in, but not every family is like that. Jet, for example, has been in her boyfriend's family Whatsapp group for some time now, and that's really A Thing.
The photo
Really no one updates their relationship status on Facebook anymore because love issues are incredibly the new relationship status update. And there can be quite a bit of thought work involved beforehand. Because when is the moment there, the moment you show the entire digital world “I am with him”? A certain editor from Amayzine recently took the step after weeks of hesitation to post a photo of her and the boy on Facebook for the first time. “LIKE THAT SHIT” we were told, which we of course obediently did. The first photo of you together on Facebook or Instagram is truly a milestone. No engagement ring can compare.
