Cupid, Help!
By Mackenzie Mathieson
Opinions Editor
This past February 14th was one of the best times I’ve had so far in this this new year. With it being only the second Valentine’s Day that I’ve truly had someone to celebrate, I cherished every moment.
Although everything had been so perfect on this day of love, a changing in my mood occurred when I tiredly crawled into bed and opened my phone to Instagram. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not someone who’s totally against social media. It’s one of the primary ways to socialize for people in their teens, and I do enjoy sending my friends funny reels on the daily. However, the thing that really bugged me was the subconscious competition that seemed to be going on here.
All day on the 14th, people were posting their extravagant, thousand-dollar gifts as if to show off that they have the best lover and it made me wonder, is love really this material? I was thrilled with my hand-drawn poster and small, beautiful bouquet of flowers that I received from my boyfriend, as well the food we ate at our favourite, quaint taco place. And being around all those people carrying their own small bouquets just made me want to cry from happiness. Everyone was just there, enjoying their own moment.
Contrarily, in the online world the competitiveness of every post I saw was unbearable. Massive bouquets of flowers, expensive gifts and dates and all for what? To me, to buy someone’s love is to be much too lazy to work for it. Seeing this reality, I can’t help but think, “Cupid, please help bring real love back to this day!”. And it’s not only those buying these gifts who are guilty. Those who post the gifts they receive are competing just as much as those who buy them.
This competition of material love is everywhere around this time of year, and I know that we’re not to blame. It’s so easy to fall into this consumeristic trap put in place by cooperations. God, even I posted the flowers that my boyfriend bought me on my Instagram story. Was it to appreciate his love for me, or was it just me being yet another pawn in this consumerist world? I couldn’t even say! We’re all so programmed by society to show off, to compete, when we should just be appreciating what we have.
So with this new year still at its beginning, let us deprogram and find our moments rather than show them off.