What is love? this is the same question you get sent by your best friend on WhatsApp in the wee hours of the night. However, I’m not here to add fuel to the fire by debating whether love is a name given to the chemical reactions that occur in our body when we see someone or if it is this beautiful connection between two individuals destined to be together for all of eternity. Furthermore, whatever the case may be, we all can surely agree on one thing: Love is immensely overrated.
Our love-drunk society
The obsession with the concept of romantic love is evident in the modern media; from the local advertisements to being one of the main themes in a Pakistani soap opera. Moreover, 60% of all music produced revolves around love. Furthermore, the overexposure of the idea of romantic love makes the individual assume that it’s the only purpose of life. Additionally, the unrealistic portrayal of love evident in modern media just adds to the fiasco mentioned before. Fair-skin and a loaded bank account are the main requirements one should meet in order for them to be someone’s ideal soulmate. Generating the need to have a lover and then setting the requirements so high creates a never-ending race to be this “perfect” soulmate to someone.
The side effects of our obsession with love
The media has shaped our minds into thinking that contentment lies in the arms of a lover. The need to fit into a certain mold for some XYZ individual to fall in love with you is damaging to self-growth. I remember during my preteen days; I was a huge one direction fan. As you would expect from any 12 years old, I had a massive crush on Harry Style; from a really trusted source (Tumblr) I got to know that his favorite color was pink. If Harry Style’s favorite color was pink, then from that moment forward it was also mine. Since pink was now my new “favorite” color, all the new clothes I bought from 2012-2013 were pink in color. This anecdote represents a silly perspective on how the current love culture can damage individuality; however, this is far from reality.
The toxic love culture has lead to a surge in the usage of fairness creams and face bleach. Furthermore, many youngsters feel insecure about themselves as we believe that we need to meet certain criteria to be loved. The need to mold ourselves into someone’s “ideal” partner is mentally exhausting and toxic. Consequently, unattainable beauty standards and class-conscious attitude just break the individual’s self-esteem. Furthermore, in the search to find someone who can “complete” us, we forget to embrace ourselves for who we truly are.
Conclusion
In the quest to be someone’s true love, we forget that the person we’re going to spend most of our lives with is none other than ourselves. It’s difficult to admit it but we are our own worst enemies. We hate ourselves for not meeting up to our own expectations. Our obsession with finding love makes us forget to love ourselves first. We compete to get our crush’s attention and for that small dose of dopamine, we disregard our long-term dreams. It is time we put ourselves first and acknowledge that the fictitious love media has portrayed for generations is just not worth fighting for.
