Luisa Bernardino

Relationships may always seem sweet, but gen-z standards have made into a worry.

Snapping back and forth, matching each other’s bios, waiting an unnecessarily long time to text back so that you are not being too “needy,” almost every action in a Gen Z relationship is calculated nowadays. Gen Z dating is the most problematic it has ever been.

The infamous “three-month rule” is when you are excited about a new relationship, but you’re only testing the waters. Most people break up during this period.

Social media has unintentionally impacted many teenager’s relationships. Terms such as “icks,” “red flags,” and “situation-ships” have been trending for the past year and a half. People now give relationships a 90-day trial, also called a “situationship”, before committing seriously.

This unnecessary trial worsens this generation’s fear of commitment. Talking stages have become an unstable foundation for today’s relationships. Nobody knows how to get to know a person genuinely, and all they do is send a “wyd” text every five minutes.

So… you guys are together, but not really together. You’re not seeing anyone else, but you’re also not officially dating. You guys act like a couple but he hasn’t asked you to be his girlfriend yet, so what exactly are you two?

Commitment issues have only worsened in today’s dating world. People now only look for temporary relationships to fill in an empty void, to distract themselves, and to avoid the long-term effects.

Saying you are in a situationship is just another way to say that you’re only dating around for the fun of it. Sometimes most people do it to get their dopamine fix, or because they have bad FOMO and don’t want to miss out on teen dating.

Swipe right, snap back, like their story—anything to get their attention, right? Gen Z has a unique way of flirting. They try to keep up their nonchalant act so they do not seem too needy and take ages to reply to text messages so they do not seem too interested.

Taking extensive time to reply is just one example of how we don’t want to seem interested in people when in reality, we do. You get a message, read it by half-swiping, then let it sit there. It’s like an unspoken rule that the Gen Z dating world follows. The irony of it all is that we are probably just staring at our phones, waiting for the next notification to pop up…

Modern dating is what you make of it, which honestly is not much. Genuine connections have been lost between the lines of trying to catch up with peers and getting satisfaction from messing with others’ feelings. Maybe we are just awkward teens who have zero clue about what we are doing. Maybe we need to learn the difference between wanting experience and knowing when we are ready.

Until then, it will just be a series of wasting time on people who get bored too quickly.