People aren’t showing off their relationships online anymore – and I’m not surprised

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy For a while, you couldn’t spend two minutes online without seeing someone doing a “hard launch”. “We don’t have people trying to get involved with our relationship or purposely stirring the pot because no one thinks they know everything about our relationship,” adds Kelly. “What’s ours remains ours.” This rejection is despite the flurry of online activity that ensues after the official launch: holidays together, anniversary celebrations, and maybe, eventually, engagement announcements. It can easily turn into an unhealthy obsession, too, eliciting anxieties around engagement with posts about you and your partner, leading you to draw meaning from things that are inherently meaningless: “This friend didn’t like this post of the two of us, do you think it means they don’t support the relationship?” and so on.