Just because most of us gave up on looking for Prince Charming a long time ago doesn’t mean we don’t still crave romance in our lives. Things in the dating world are so different these days that we don’t often realize the signs when we see them. For better or worse, here are 10 staples of modern day romance:
- The good morning text.If you were hoping that he’d wake you up with breakfast in bed, think again. Unless you actually live together, you can expect that your good morning wake up will come via text, complete with come cute emoji.
- Carefully chosen hashtags.When a picture gets posted to Instagram or Twitter, you’d better believe it’s all about the hashtags. The possibilities are endless, from #lovemybaby to #luckyguy and a million cringe-worthy choices in between. But for crying out loud, can we stop using #BAE already?
- Social media dedications.You know you’re really someone special when someone raves on their social media accounts about you. It goes something like this: “I’m so grateful and happy to live every day of my life with you by my side. You make my world a better place. I love you, my best friend.” Except now, instead of reading those words in a romantic love note or hearing them actually uttered in person, they’re on showcase for all of the Internet to see (and hopefully ‘like’ or comment on).
- The perfect engagement video.Private engagements are completely a thing of the past. Now, it’s all about the grandest gesture capable of sending your engagement video viral. Basically, if we didn’t see a video — or a post-engagement selfie, at the very least — it never happened.
- Missed connection boards.For those who failed to actually muster up the guts to speak to the good looking stranger in person, the missed connection boards on Craigslist still exist and are pretty popular. There are even new dating apps like Happn to keep the hope alive that you’ll have your chance at a romantic moment once again. Nothing says romance in 2016 than creepy online stalking.
- Deleting Tinder.A very monumental step and a reason to celebrate romance is when two people finally decide to go offline and stop pursuing endless online options and only pursue each other. This is what we consider an epic romantic gesture. It means crap is about to get real.
- Gift cards.We don’t have time to shop for the perfect gift anymore, unless it’s available on Amazon and can be delivered to our front door via free 2-day shipping. For everything else, there’s a gift card.
- Couple selfies.In addition to photo albums and pictures in frames around the house, couple selfies are an almost mandatory display of true affection. There’s a photo shoot for everything, and there’s nothing like external validation to solidify your relationship, right?
- Last minute planning.Planned out and thoughtful dates are rarer to come by. We prefer to fly by the seat of our pants instead, which usually only results in a whole lot of Netflix and chill. We deserve so much better, yet we keep accepting this crap.
- Demanding perfection.Technology means that our options are (seemingly) endless and we don’t have to settle for less than 100 percent of what we desire. If someone doesn’t make the cut, you can be back on your dating app of choice within a few seconds flat, on to the next one.
