Online “relationships” have already brought enough pain, with outcomes rarely positive for couples. From catfishing to even financial scams, this has led to countless mutual exposés regarding the appearance of both parties. This is quite understandable, given that the emergence of numerous photo editing apps and the prevalence of using images of internet celebrities have become all too familiar. Remember, online, everything remains at an “illusory” level. Yet, it’s puzzling how so many people place complete trust in online relationships, only to rush online to expose each other when reality hits and they break up. The girl in the story below is the clearest example.
Specifically, just recently, a girl unexpectedly took to Chinese social media to complain to the community about her initially sweet online relationship that ended bitterly. Like many other relationships, the two met through social media, and after a period of seamless conversation with many shared interests, the couple decided to take a step further to label each other as “significant others.” The girl was quite cautious, asking her boyfriend to send her pictures. Based on what was sent, it could be seen that the guy in the photos appeared cool, handsome, and had a somewhat aloof demeanor that fits the current trend among youth.
But of course, in these modern times, what you see in photos is only relatively true. Then on a beautiful day, when they finally met, the girl suddenly felt disillusioned, worse yet, felt deceived. That was when she realized her online boyfriend was nothing like what she had imagined. The sharp eyebrows and aloof demeanor vanished upon meeting. Instead, the boy looked so ordinary that he could not be more ordinary, neither good-looking nor bad, but with no standout features whatsoever.
And her first reaction, like many others, was to post online to expose the boy she had shared her thoughts and feelings with for so long. However, it seems she had suffered enough from such exposés, so instead of receiving supportive comments, what she faced was a barrage of criticism from the online community. Some argued that she only cared about appearance, despite the fact that they had previously shared deep conversations and understood each other well. Others claimed that the boy in the photos and in real life were not that different, and he wasn’t ugly enough to warrant such an expose. It does make sense, but poor girl ended up exposing someone and getting backlash instead.