Gone are the days when I would discuss my latest crush with my friends, try finding mutual friends to get more chances to see them and track their latest activities. Thanks to multiple social media powerhouses today, all we need is our latest love interest’s name to locate them on Facebook, and send them a friend request to stalk their pictures, their check-ins, the events they will be attending and what they had for lunch.

As Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Tumblr continue to take over the masses in their attempts to ‘connect’ people, dating in the era of a social media epidemic has become restricted from ‘Let’s chill’ and ‘Wanna hang out?’ messages to “In a relationship with XYZ” status updates. Instead of commitment and loyalty issues, the most pressing relationship problems faced by individuals today begin with “I just posted our couple picture, why hasn’t he liked it yet or shared it on his profile?”, and end at “He did not respond to my best friend’s friend request, is he even serious about our relationship?”.

While instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Line and Viber have really facilitated communication, it goes without saying that it has also increased the anxiety levels among the victims of Cupid’s arrow. Once a double tick indicates that the message went through, and there’s no response from the other side, either the guy is with another girl, or he is least interested in the relationship, or he just got hit by a truck. Network errors, long showers and napping are reasons that don’t exist once double ticks go unheeded.

Dating in this era of selfies and deep status updates has seriously led to a drought of genuine emotions and unfiltered expressions. Instead of expressing their feelings directly, people resort to posting beautiful Tumblr-esque pictures of sunsets and the sea with a deep quotes, or romantic song lyrics and tagging their partners in it, not to mention the flattering comments on their profile pictures or chummy Instagram hashtags.

Love has always been synonymous with care and expression. However, when communicating through gadgets; a person who really admires you but makes conscious efforts to appear carefree to avoid coming across as cheesy; seems exactly like the person whose nonchalance may be due to his zero interest in you. Sadly, digital dating has certainly made it a tall order to decipher between the two.