Timmons 1

Allyson Timmons

Professor Amy Novak

English 101-06

September 28th, 2019

Blue Text ​= Feedback

Green Text ​= Edit

#CoupleGoals

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast; unless you’re posting the

40th over-glorified video/gif/photo of your boyfriend or girlfriend. Like many others, my social

media feed oftentimes becomes filled with visually aesthetic couples. This does not include those

who post sparingly, showing others the love one has for another is not ​wrong​, by any means.

(I’m not sure what this sentence means.) ​However, with over 18.2 million photos on Instagram

tagged #couplegoals, the trend does raise the question as to why we find certain couples the

epitome of romance as compared to others. ​(Great sentence here.) I grew up in the age of social

media, and the internet explosion that was the 2000’2-2010’s. ​We as a culture have become so

integrated with the internet, that we compare our relationships to influencers, and feel the need to

validate our emotions for another by posting about it. It’s almost as if the more you share on your

social media, about your significant other, the more you’re supposed to love them. This can be

damaging to us as we interact with people everyday and if our view on love is shifted into

something damaging, we will eventually be harming each other. ​(Great establishment and

interpretation of context).
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These online personalities created an expectations that are not realistic to normal

standards. Of course, we shouldn’t settle for someone we do not like, but if you expect your

boyfriend to be a billionaire, have hair smoother than a baby’s butt and bring you 200 roses

every day, or your girlfriend to be skinny but curvy, sexy yet innocent, no imperfections of any

kind ​(​especially ​after she has a kid​)​, you may have a bit of a reality shock. What do we know

about love? The simple answer is we don’t know necessarily, but we know what respect,

kindness, and dedication are. ​(Maybe this needs to be rewritten better. Structure is a tad weird.)

We feel love, we feel the desire to be all of those things to someone. Like any relationship, a

romantic love will come with its ups and downs. It is a game of give and take, of growing and

learning with someone. Many may wonder what a college freshman knows about love, but I love

my mom, I fight with her but I apologize and I do better the next time because I also respect her.

I love my best friend, we don’t always see eye to eye but we respectfully disagree and discuss

our differences. I’ve been in a long term relationship with a man I still respect and love today

even if we are not together.

Love is ​not ​selfish. However, many coupled personalities

online are. The ACE Family, with 17.7 million subscribers

on YouTube, 3.1 million followers across two twitter

accounts, and 14.3 million across two instagram accounts,

Austin McBroom and Catherine Paiz have shared their

family’s lives across social media platforms. This

following is comprised of a lot of younger audiences, including young teens. While it is not

wrong to aspire to find someone to love, and have a family, the ACE Family often glorifies and
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monetizes their wealth and exploits that as the epitome of love. Love is relayed differently to

them, as compared to many of us who will never have a 13 million dollar house, 5 Range

Rovers, and a multitude of Gucci and Prada merchandise to give to our family. Austin and

Catherine have never really been the most humble individuals, while their life seems “perfect”

because of their money and cute children, they do a lot of pranks on each other at the expense of

other people. Austin rides a ski jet in his hillside pool in one video, by doing this he splashes

pool water onto his neighbors grapevines, drenching and ultimately ruining them. These

neighbors were retired and grew a vineyard in their backyard, but ultimately it was ruined due to

the mudslides caused by the water in their pool falling over. The ACE family like many

youtubers, profit off of their videos but can it is never clear whether everything they do for their

kids or for the economic and social benefit. Once that line becomes blurred, there is no way of

saying whether the love is true or artificial much like the couple themselves are. It does raise the

question of what we consider to be love. This couple has a toxic influence, much like a lot of

social media, which also begs the question what do we look at online and consider to be truly

aspiring to us?

Does this imply that one can’t post on

their social media their loved ones and not be

materialistic? We know this simply isn’t true,

as loving someone in this generation does

sometimes invoke the desire to show the

world how you feel. ​(Amazing example!

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Perfect example of a bad #CoupleGoals that’s very prevalent.)

Ultimately, is what we seek love, or some sort of monetary validation by people we do

not know? Many of us find it harder to go out and find a love for ourselves, and because we look

up to couples like the ACE family, only to see that there are many flaws and inconsistencies.

Many of us can see this, and undo that expectation in our head but many will continue to glorify

it. And with the use of social media, we start to view posting as a necessity to a relationship.

Many begin to question if their partner even ​cares a​ bout them if they don’t post about them on

their social media. Chrissy Teigen posts many photos and videos of her life with her two children

and husband, singer​, and song-writer John Legend. ​(This new topic should really be it’s own

paragraph. The buildup here is simply too long.) Outside of her social media platform Teigen

writes cookbooks, hosts a show, and models so monetizing her children and family are not

needed in order for her to make money or have a comfortable lifestyle. She speaks on women’s

issues, the mental effects of postpartum depression, and uses her platform to spread love and to

use her voice for things that matter. Both her and her husband are independent of each other,

they are able to love, support, and accept each other while also being self serving individuals.

This is a healthier form of love that should be encouraged because she posts enough so people

can ​relate ​but not so much that people will ​compare. She stays connected to everyone, and

doesn’t over glorify herself as a celebrity or a mother. Speaking about mental health, political

issues, stretch marks, post-pregnancies, is seen as raw and real in a vast amount of considered

“perfection”. Teigen and Legend do not

flaunt their marriage and clump it in with

their wealth, and most importantly do not

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claim to have the perfect marriage or relationship, often posting the less romantic aspects of a

marriage and a partnership. Never claiming to be perfect, but accepting the blessings one has,

which varies person by person, is the ultimate goal.

Love isn’t about acting like you and your partner have the perfect life; like every

relationship, patience, respect, and dedication are needed to be successful but there will be ups

and downs. The ACE Family claims to be the perfect family, but they are flawed and

inconsiderate. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen show off and have fun with their flaws, which

doesn’t make them perfect but it does give insight into the fact that online relationships aren’t a

template for our relationships. Love is how you interpret it, love is singular to those experiencing

it.

(I think the main issue holding this paper back is the lack of two artifacts of evidence

demonstrating the toxic nature of #CoupleGoals. I did love the topic of Teigen and Legend in

here, but it didn’t solidify the existence of the bad side of the trend. The entire paper is built up to

be about how the toxic side of couple goals is bad, so I’m assuming that it’s best that you have

two examples of toxicity before introducing what contrasts the bad trend. Overall, the paper is

great with what it had.)

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Works Cited

● (source) ​The impact of s​ ocial media​ in modern romantic relationships, Couple

Relationships in the 21st Century

● https://psychcentral.com/blog/is-social-media-damaging-your-romantic-relationship/

● Instagram: @chrissyteigen

● YouTube: The ACE Family

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnuOSKQ2K_k