By Kordell Booth

Love is dead…Or maybe it isn’t? 

In our culture Valentine’s day is celebrated by getting your significant other gifts and flowers, and spending money. Nowadays, the way we show love and find love is very different than it was 20-30 years ago. Back in the 80’s and 90’s people found love by actually mustering up the courage to talk to the person that they liked. 

 In the early 2000’s  the rise of dating apps revolutionized the way people got to know each other by being able to use an app that showed your best qualities. It’s also easier to find people from around the world and not just people who live in your city. In the modern day, social media is the easiest way to meet, see, and get to know someone you haven’t even met before.  This increased usage of dating apps combined with the rise in AI, there’s no telling what love will look like in the future.

In the 21st century technology is constantly changing and evolving. Our mobile phone revolutionized the way we communicate to people. This has also changed the way relationships work because now you can communicate with a partner whenever you want and you don’t just have to be in person to talk. 

Now it’s 2025, our pocket phones are pocket computers, which have multiple ways to communicate from texts, to calls, to video chats. There are more ways than ever to be able to talk to a partner; however, phones also have social media and AI robots which can be very deceiving and can ruin relationships and even lives. For example when a new AI is created, most are created to deceive, especially the cars that have a self driving mode. This is an AI mode where it is known to go through red lights or even stop signs. But now more and more AI is being trained to deceive humans to make us believe it is another human when it’s really not. 

According to AP News, in February of 2024, a 14 year old Florida student took his own life over his AI girlfriend a couple weeks before his 15th birthday. He was using Character.AI to build himself a friend, until they became more than friends. Their intimacy grew. They talked to each other everyday and once he got comfortable enough this AI character that he created became his girlfriend, and they were in love…until things went sideways. One day he came home from school and he ended his life because the AI bot told him to. Stories like these really make me question if love is real in a modern age, how can something that is supposed to be so good bring so much pain. 

I don’t believe love is dead. However, I do believe that the trust and vulnerability that you need for love is under attack. The trust that you need to have in your partner has changed a lot in the past 20 years, because now in this new social media era anyone can talk to whoever they want. And many people think that it’s cool to do that. People almost think that having multiple girlfriends or boyfriends is a cool thing. Additionally in this era with AI,  people can be easily deceived by thinking something is real when in all actuality it was never real to begin with.

 In this era, nearly everything is shared on social media. If you can’t trust your partner on these platforms, it may be a sign that the relationship isn’t right for you. Being vulnerable and open with your partner can define your relationship. For example, if you connect with someone who has experienced similar things as you, and you are both open and vulnerable in expressing your feelings, that creates a healthy and happy relationship.