When you’re in love or really excited about a new relationship, sharing every little thing that you love about that person on social media is very tempting. You’re feeling good and you want to let other people know about it. Your partner may have just done something extremely sweet or said something insightful that you want to share with your social network. After you draft your post and just before you hit send, you get a slight feeling of discomfort and wonder whether or not it’s a good idea to share it with your 500-plus followers after all.
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shouting out your partner occasionally on social media, some people get into the habit of oversharing or even bragging about their relationship or marriage online, which releases a whole set of problems on your romance and says some less than positive things about you. Here’s why:
You invite people into your business
The fastest way to invite people to pry, investigate, and make assumptions about your relationship is to post about it too much on social media. You think you’re just tagging your boyfriend in a cute little status, but your nosy coworker sees his tagged page as an opportunity to deep dive into his employment history and past relationships.
Life will humble you
Bragging is almost always in poor taste — whether it be about your relationship or anything else. It makes people feel bad, but it also opens the door for overexposure. You should never live your life in fear, but things happen. Relationships go sour and sometimes people are not who we thought they were. What makes these unfortunate circumstances worse is when you have to deal with them publicly because you invited everybody and their mama into your relationship by doing the most on Facebook and Instagram.
“For many people, social media becomes less about sharing memories and more about […] keeping up with others,” Jonathan Bennett, a relationship and dating expert at Double Trust Dating, told Bustle. “By keeping your relationship off of social media, you’re removing this pressure to ‘keep up appearances.’”
You have nothing to prove
People who showboat on social media often do so because they feel that they need to impress their followers. However, the truth is that you really have nothing to prove to anyone about your relationship or anyone else. If you’re happily in love, enjoy it. You don’t have to convince others of anything. Your genuine happiness will be hard to ignore.
You make yourself appear insecure
Most people who showboat, on or off social media, are insecure, so when someone constantly brags about their partner on social media, many of their followers will assume that they are not all that secure in their relationship.
“Often it’s the people who post the most who are seeking validation for their relationship from other people on social media,” Sexologist Nikki Goldstein told The Daily Mail. “The likes and comments can be so validating that when someone is really struggling, that’s where they get their up from — not the person making the gesture, but what other people will say about it.”
