For as long as my dating life, social media has always been around, I can’t help but think in the day and age of our parents and grand parents when checking relationship status’ and doing regular tweet checks didn’t exist – the art of surprise and romance was tremendously better.

My parents met 25 years ago, before facebook, twitter and of course mobile phones. They met for the first time in person (shock!) and had to talk to each other in person (yes, I know!). When meeting each other, they went out for dinner once a week and arranged this in person. If they had to contact each other it would be by landline. So, when dating they saw each other once a week and only spoke to each other during that time, that’s all they were used to and all they could do.

They had a whole week of waiting to see each other where upon feelings of excitement, nervousness and surprise were always guaranteed. They had to ask each other questions to get to know each other, not read their twitter bio or text each other 24/7. And thankfully, they have been married for 22 years this month.

Of course like every couple they’ve had their ups and downs and I am in awe of what they have been through and have still come out the other end stronger than ever. But, I can’t help but envy their dating lives.

Nowdays, many people start relationships through the means of facebook and twitter. Maybe I’m being old-fashioned but I would much rather be approached in a bar than poked on facebook. No, I don’t want to text you every second of the day, I’d much rather talk in person. I don’t want to know everything about you before I meet you, I want to get to know you in person.

Not only this but it seems twitter and facebook cause much more arguments in relationships than need be.

“Why have you got a picture with him/her?!”

“Why have you inboxed him/her?” Etc Etc Etc Etc..

I even know people who have regularly checked up on their other half’s twitter/facebook by logging into their accounts. Trust issues much?!

Then there’s the stalker like behaviour that comes with a breakup. A previous boyfriend once rang me in a drunken state asking why I’d been tweeting other boys, and this was post break-up and after no longer following me on twitter. I’m pretty sure he still scrolls through my tweets every so often.

I’m sure we’re all guilty of a quick stalk through ex’s profiles and tweets but again, in the day of my parents this didn’t exist and we wouldn’t have a need to torture ourselves by seeing a change of relationship status.

Am I being extremely backwards here or is this a valid way of feeling? Meeting people through twitter and Facebook obviously works for some people but I’d much rather not be meeting my future husband through a DM on twitter.