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Mental health experts reveal that this hashtag is harming your romantic prospects

Look up the internet, and you are bound to come across pictures of celeb couples looking dreamily into each other’s eyes or spouting poetic lines, hashtagged relationship goals, encouraging all and sundry to follow suit. And if it’s not the pics that are captioned awww, there will be a details about a romantic escapade or juicy bits about an expensive bauble or a surprise birthday party. While the romantics may swoon over all the mush, there are sceptics, who will roll their eyes at what they perceive as #oversharing information. And while we are not concerned with the latter, we are focusing on the former. It’s a burgeoning legion of fans, who are unknowingly killing their own relationships, while chasing the illusive unicorn (i.e. #celeb relationship goals).

Mapping a celeb’s love life

So invested is this lot in a famous couple’s love life that they could easily rattle out their birth dates, the number of kids they have together, their names , etc. Ask a question and you will receive an answer. Just not the one you may necessarily approve of. A prime example of said behaviour was the recent pregnancy announcement of Beyoncé, where she broke the internet with her happy revelation about expecting twins. And Queen Bey and Jay-Z were not the only celeb couple to send the internet into a frenzy with their happy baby news.

Elsewhere, the much followed and written about George and Amal Clooney also made headlines for their baby news. And it’s not just celeb pregnancy buzz that hogs the limelight, weddings, courtship, breakups and holidays, everything is hashtagged under one label ­— #relationship goals. And while you are encouraged to follow and even aspire to have a romance like so and so, not following the herd could actually work in your favour.

And this tendency to ape a celeb’s love life is not limited to Hollywood. Fans of Bollywood celebs are equally susceptible to aspire to achieve this relationship goal spiel. Psychiatrist Anjali Chhabria goes on to elaborate why this happens. She says, “In Bollywood and its love stories, real or reel, there’s always hope for a happy ending, and since we get so used to picturing these celebrities having their happily-ever-afters, we expect them to be those characters in real life too, and hence, we unconsciously begin to idealise their relationship, hoping ours will be as good as theirs.” That also probably explains the mourning when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie/Pitt and Jennifer Aniston decided to go their separate ways.

How it kills your love life?

Anjali goes on to add that, “Knowing about a celebrity’s relationship gives us a feeling of being close to them, and we follow the story as much as we would follow the love life of a close friend. Mostly, because we are so aware of their relationship right from the bedroom talks to PDAs that are highlighted and made a big deal of. The key is to be conscious and not to cross the line, and make unrealistic comparisons. Take the happy pictures with a pinch of salt as they are often candid and captured at the right moment.”

Psychiatrist Dr Hemant Mittal’s warning. He says, “Copying someone a lot can be detrimental for your relationship’s health. One has to understand that a relationship is formed on the basis of the compatibility of those involved not by simply emulating a said hashtag. You cannot create compatibility and love by copying a celeb’s behaviour.”

Moral of the story — Don’t fall for the hashtag celeb relationship goals, make your own.

SOURCE: DNA INDIA

 

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