Love is still in the air despite the fact that Valentine’s Day has just passed by. Social media posts are still showing pictures of boyfriend and girlfriend celebrating their relationships.
In 2017, people started to describe their relationship as a “situationship.” Little did they know that the term would be more harmful than they realized.
What is a situationship? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a situationship is “a romantic or sexual relationship that is not officially committed to or defined.” It implies that the relationship between two people does not have a label or boundary. The people are not committed to a long term relationship such as the boyfriend/girlfriend type. They instead are talking and experimenting with each other. In many ways, they act like a couple, but they have not labeled it so.
Situationships can alleviate the stress involved in a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship. A student at Frederick Community College (FCC), who wishes to remain anonymous, said that “You can mimic a relationship and see what it is like without fully committing to one another.” The student explained that it is easier for people who are looking for companionship and intimacy while wanting to keep their independence.
The problem is that relationships require a lot of honesty and open communication. Honesty is key to a relationship because it shows how much you love that person to be vulnerable and truthful every time. The opposite happens in situationships. There is a mixture of honesty and lying that occurs. The two people in a relationship tell each other their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The question is, how much of that communication in a situationship is the truth? They could claim that the relationship is not serious or they could hold back important information out of fear or worse.
That includes the second important quality: open communication. Jaden Loo, in her Bowling Green State University article titled, “Divorce Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2022,” reported that the rate of divorce in America for first time marriages is 40-50%. That is a high number and most likely due to lack of communication during the dating period and marriage itself. If couples are not being clear on the boundaries of their situationship, it will create a lot of confusion and misjudgment on either side. That confusion could lead to resentment or misery which could prove to be harmful to the situationship. These reasons are why people are unsure about the success of situationships.
Situationships offer people the opportunity to be in a relationship without too many responsibilities. There seemingly is not a lot of success in this due to the lack of open communication and honesty. Ultimately, people need to remember that open communication and honesty between the two people in a relationship are two important factors for it to work.
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