"The Bachelor tells us more about the state of unions than any romantic comedy could dream of telling us."

- David Shields, Reality Hunger

Relationships constitute the single most important factor responsible for survival of homo sapiens.

 - Ellen Berscheid, PhD Psychology

I think our fundamental perceptions of relationships are different than they were 100 years ago -- and I believe they've radically changed in the last decade.

Before I continue, allow me to drop a HUGE GRAIN OF SALT on you: I'm not a psychologist or some expert in relationships and academia.

I'm just a twenty-something guy trying to make his way through the world with a story worth telling. 

I write on this blog as a way to share what I've learned and am learning. That's why it's called Chronically Curious. It's almost like a way for me to visualize where I've been and where I'm going. If even one other person gets some value from reading my blog, well; cool. There are plenty of other places on the web where you can get link-bait, marketing analytics, infographics, scholarly quotes and top-ten lists.

So can we get back to the original post? Verbs like "follow," "friend" and "like" are ubiquitous online. They make the connection sound more personal than it really is.

Think about your most important relationships: friends, family, significant others. 

What percentage of your interactions are mediated through a filter (e.g., a computer screen, phone call, text message or even another person)?

I'm not the first person to miscommunicate my intentions via writing and I bet most of us have misinterpreted the context of a text message at some point.

What percentage of your interactions are face-to-face?

I've been thinking a lot about my own relationships and how a good portion of them will now have to be mediated through some technological filter. Though this isn't always the case, I fear these filters have the potential to slowly weaken the relationships that were built on face-to-face interactions.