They say that love is eternal. However, the definitions of love have changed over time. What it meant to love in the old days is quite different from what it means to love in this generation. It is often told that the present generation is doomed when it comes to love. All of us have heard about relationships in the earlier days that have lasted the ravages of time and are still going strong. On the contrary, relationships today barely last the first few hurdles. The present generation likes to pride itself by saying that it is more independent than before, and that it has a lot of options when it comes to love. However, in that quest for independence and options is this generation losing out on stability and the very essence that makes love so beautiful?
What it meant to love before
When we talk about love in the older times we refer to stability, commitment, compromise and understanding. The understanding of love where knights used to keep their ladies on a high pedestal is a concept from the days of yore. Earlier people used to love wholeheartedly and knew that despite all odds they needed to work together to make a relationship last. Earlier, people knew that no relationship was perfect but perseverance and dedication made it a worthwhile and wonderful journey. In older days people used to meet a person and want to really know them. If the other person was to their liking they would meet their parents, get engaged, marry and start a family. Love was all about the vision of a family in earlier days. Even movies and songs depicted this theory of eternal love and the one true love repeatedly, because it was really the overpowering sentiment in those days. In earlier times, even during a falling out people would talk it out and mend things between themselves. The concept of monogamy was a cherished idea and committed passion above anything was glorified.
What it means to love now
This generation is one that believes in hook ups and Tinder dates. This generation is one which shows love through social media posts and emojis. This generation believes in being independent and hence stops expressing their innermost feelings for fear of being deemed needy or clingy. This generation likes to keep its options open. When in love or dating, the present generation likes to overanalyze things and wonder whether there is somebody better looking or more successful out there that they could have been with. This generation likes to be vindictive when they have had a fight and doesn’t talk with each other or communicate in order to teach the other person a lesson. Sleeping with strangers, having friends with benefits, relationships with no strings attached are the fancies of this generation; anything to fill the void that the absence of love creates. This generation communicates their feelings through the inanimate screen of a phone. Even songs and movies try to glorify the debauchery that this generation has stepped into. The essence of true love and the concepts of monogamy are considered old-fashioned and cheesy. People don’t like drama these days, and putting in excessive effort for the one you love seems to be crazy behaviour.
Truly this generation has lost something along the way. This is a generation of lonely, disappointed and broken people with trust issues that doesn’t know how to love and make a relationship last.
