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Love in the Age of Low Battery and Blue Ticks Once upon a time, love was relatively simple. You met someone, exchanged a few shy glances, maybe shared a samosa, and if the universe aligned (and your parents didn’t catch you talking on the landline), you had yourself a relationship.

Now, love requires a strong Wi-Fi connection, multiple streaming subscriptions, a curated Spotify playlist, and an advanced degree in emotional unavailability. Welcome to the era of modern love—a confusing, exhausting, and emotionally calorie-burning experience that many of us are navigating with the grace of a baby giraffe learning to walk.

If you've ever felt like dating today is just another unpaid internship where the job description keeps changing, you’re not alone.

The Tinder Treadmill and Choice Overload
Dating apps have turned finding love into a game of hot-or-not with infinite rounds. On paper, this sounds amazing. Unlimited access to potential partners from the comfort of your bed? Swipe-right heaven. But in reality, it’s more like scrolling endlessly on a food delivery app only to end up eating toast.

The more choices we have, the less satisfied we feel. There’s always a sneaking suspicion that someone taller, funnier, or more emotionally available is just one more swipe away. This leads to a habit of perpetual browsing without ever really choosing.

And because so many people are on the same treadmill, everyone’s half-in, half-out—just enough interest to keep the conversation alive, but not enough to commit.

Ghosting: The Emotional Hit-and-Run If you’ve ever been ghosted, you know the unique psychological thrill of trying to figure out whether they died, got kidnapped, or just lost interest and didn’t have the decency to say so.

Ghosting has become the unofficial break-up tool of modern romance. One day you're exchanging memes and planning a trip to Pondicherry, the next you're staring at your phone like it's betrayed you. No message. No closure. Just the slow realization that silence is your answer.

It’s exhausting because it creates a cycle of self-doubt. Was it something I said? Did I come off too eager? Is it the pineapple pizza thing again?

Modern dating has made avoidance the new communication. And it’s wrecking our trust in the process.

Situationships and the Fear of Labels
There was a time when relationships had names: friends, dating, boyfriend, girlfriend, engaged, married. Simple steps, easy labels. Now we have: talking stage, texting stage, hanging out, kind of dating, sleeping together but not exclusive, emotionally attached but not in a relationship, and the ever-popular “it’s complicated.”

The rise of the situationship—a relationship that functions like a relationship without the commitment of one—has become the new normal. You’re emotionally invested, physically involved, but if you ask “What are we?”, you’re told not to ruin a good thing.

This ambiguity is draining. It requires you to constantly check your emotions, avoid overstepping, and pretend you're cool with not knowing where things are headed. Spoiler: most people aren’t cool with it.

The Performance Pressure of Instagram Love Social media has turned relationships into content. A good relationship is no longer just about connection and companionship—it’s about optics. Are you posting enough pictures together? Do you have matching filters? Are your captions clever and hashtag-friendly?

The pressure to be a picture-perfect couple online has created a new kind of stress. Now, people are comparing their very real, often messy relationships to the highlight reels of others.

If you’re not being tagged in stories, if you’re not part of a surprise proposal video, or if your vacation doesn’t include a drone shot, it somehow feels like you’re doing love wrong.

This performative aspect of modern love adds a layer of fatigue that has nothing to do with actual intimacy and everything to do with public perception.

Emotional Burnout from Dating Fatigue
We talk a lot about burnout at work, but no one talks about dating fatigue. It’s real. It’s rough. And it sneaks up on you after the fifteenth small talk session that ends with “So, what are you watching on Netflix these days?”

Dating fatigue is when you’ve been on so many first dates, you can predict the other person’s answers. When you’re responding to messages out of politeness, not interest. When you see a match notification and feel... tired.

We are emotionally stretched thin. Between work, family obligations, social lives, and mental health maintenance, we’re running on low. And dating—especially without clarity or consistency—starts to feel more like another chore than something joyful.

Everyone Wants Intimacy, But No One Wants to Go First Here’s the paradox: most people want closeness. They want someone to understand them, laugh with them, binge-watch crime documentaries with them. But they also don’t want to appear needy, intense, or vulnerable.

So we all tiptoe around feelings. We leave messages on “seen.” We keep things casual. We drop hints instead of asking questions. We fear being the one who feels more. And in doing so, we end up with superficial connections that never go deeper than the occasional “wyd?”

Real intimacy requires courage—the kind that modern dating apps don’t really encourage. And that disconnect? It’s tiring.

Unrealistic Expectations Meet Instant Gratification
We want someone who’s kind but has boundaries, ambitious but available, funny but not annoying, deep but not brooding, spiritual but not preachy, spontaneous but consistent. In short, we want perfection.

At the same time, we expect results quickly. If someone doesn’t blow us away in the first date, we swipe onward. If there’s a minor hiccup, we move on instead of working through it.

Our expectations are sky-high but our patience is paper-thin. We’re treating dating like Amazon Prime—fast, flawless, and conveniently returnable.

This mindset turns love into a high-stakes shopping trip where no one wants to be the item on the clearance rack.

So What Can We Actually Do About It? We can’t uninstall modernity. But we can change how we engage with love in this hyperconnected, emotionally inconsistent world. Here’s how.

Date With Clarity, Not for Entertainment Ask yourself why you’re dating. Is it to connect? To heal? To distract yourself? To fill a void?

Knowing your reasons can help you filter out people who aren’t aligned. You don’t need ten conversations going nowhere—you need one connection going somewhere.

Learn the Art of Conscious Communication Say what you feel. Set boundaries. End things respectfully. It may feel awkward at first, but it's way less damaging than disappearing without explanation.

People who communicate clearly might seem rare, but they exist. And when you become one, you start attracting them too.

Protect Your Energy Not every match deserves your time. Not every text deserves a reply. It’s okay to take breaks, log off apps, and focus on yourself.

Love should feel exciting, not like another item on your to-do list. When it starts feeling like a job, it’s a sign to pause.

Don't Let Instagram Set Your Relationship Goals Your relationship isn’t a brand. It doesn’t need a highlight reel. It needs presence, not performance.

If someone treats you well, understands you, makes you feel safe, and maybe laughs at your terrible jokes—you’ve struck gold, whether or not it fits the aesthetic of a curated couple page.

Redefine What Success in Love Looks Like Not every relationship will lead to a white wedding with 800 guests and a drone camera. Some relationships are short, some are intense, some teach you, some break you.

They’re all valid. They all count. The goal isn't to avoid heartbreak—it’s to grow wiser through every experience.
Modern love is exhausting, yes. But it’s also evolving. Beneath all the confusion and chaos, people still want the same thing: to feel seen, valued, and understood.

So take a breath. It’s okay to be tired. It’s okay to log out. But it’s also okay to try again. Because love, for all its flaws and frustrations, still matters. And despite the blue ticks, algorithm fatigue, and cryptic “hey” texts—it’s still worth showing up for.

Even if it means eating Maggi alone sometimes.

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