Valentine’s Day has come and passed. This was a day to tell or show your significant other how much you treasure them.
More importantly, it was the day whose purpose is to increase sales for corporations like Hallmark. So tell your significant others that you love them while offering the customary bribe of chocolate and flowers, and we can keep the scam we call Valentine’s Day alive and breathing!
However, even though Valentine’s Day has passed, I have to be the bearer of more bad news: Love is dead. The whole industry or idea of love was infected, made terminal, then finally put out of its misery by a little something called the internet.
In an age where you don’t have to settle and marry just the girls in your town, swiping right is the new romantic gesture. Believe me, as a natural born romantic, this hurts me more than it hurts you.
Whenever I see any rom-com with Katherine Heigl in it I practically throw my wallet at the screen so it can take my money faster. I’m that kind of person.
With that said I am also a realist and I have at least two dating apps on my phone right now.
Our generations concept of love severely differs from our grandfathers and grandmothers. This is a good thing and a bad thing.
The good is that we are truly free to love whoever we want no matter of race, gender or religion. The bad is that there are so many choices that most of us end up choosing lust over love.
I say this not to be a curmudgeon about love and Valentine’s Day, but to illustrate that it is damn near impossible to truly date these days.
Gone are the days where you could just have a meet cute at the spur of the moment in libraries, bars, clubs and grocery stores. It has been replaced with plenty of dating sites such as Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Hinge and Plenty of Fish.
Now in these apps only the best features, pictures and moments of a potential mate are displayed. Yet nine times out of ten, they are nothing like their bio in reality.
I propose that we should have some sort of system. Once we turn 21 we are given a mate and after two years we have a choice to turn them in for a different model, or keep them for another two years. However, this idea hasn’t received much support…
So I guess we just have to stick with the system we have. As for me I will be spending Valentine night with my one true love: A bucket of popcorn and an early viewing of “Black Panther!”
I hope you’ve had a great Valentine’s Day, and try to swipe right on love.
Justin A. Baker
Staff Writer