Valentines Day in the age of social media

It’s Valentine’s Day, of course…and you know what that means.

But what if you don’t have a special someone in your life? And to rub it in these days…there’s social media. And since social media is pretty hard to escape these days, we wanted to know how it’s affecting the singles out there. We talked to several people at Cal State University Monterey Bay today… Some single… Others not.

But love it or hate it… It is Valentine’s Day.

Sam Boyd from CSUMB says, “Uhm, great idea… in theory.”

“I mean it’s a good holiday, if you have someone I guess. Says, Reed Oster also from CSUMB.

And for those who are single… Like CSUMB’s Sam Boyd and Katie Kotch. This day can be tough. “My whole snapchat feed is just, ‘happy valentine’s day’. It’s gross. Yeah it’s gross.”

And it’s not just snapchat. Facebook…Instagram…you name it. Social media sees a whole lot of action around valentines. With tweets like these… Sharing the love that couples share. On this day…some people just don’t want to see that.

Demi Tre says, “I don’t have a boyfriend so I really hate it.”

But others… Not so much. Reed Oster says, “I don’t really care. If other people are happy, good for them.”

But how is social media affecting singles on this day…that’s about celebrating love.
Dr. George Baldwin says it’s complicated. “Social scientists are struggling really hard right now to understand how attitudes and emotions are influenced by social networking”, “I’d be curious to note if people are more likely to surround themselves on a social network with other single people”

And as it turns out…they are, at least on twitter…where people call it “single awareness day.”
but for some, there’s an upside to social media… Dr. Baldwin found his sweetheart on a popular dating site.

Dr. George Baldwin, “At the end of that year I was given a lifetime membership. But like I said, I met someone there and she made me give it up.”