Traditionally, the holidays represent a season of giving, but within the young and single community, they symbolize a time for finding love. When December rolls around, couples young and old become eager to do cheesy holiday activities together, and single people want to feel included. 

Ice-skating, baking cookies, admiring Christmas lights and watching cheesy romance movies, the basic holiday activities that society praises couples for participating in. This may serve as a large reason why single people feel left out during the holidays, and become more anxious to find someone special to spend them with.

The iconic Hallmark franchise plays a significant role in making cheesy Christmas movies popular. Hallmark began making movies in 2001, and every year since then their Christmas movies air on T.V. These movies begin playing over Thanksgiving break and continue through the end of December. Hallmark enthusiasts may argue that they mark the start of the holiday season. Anyone familiar with these movies can recognize a recurring theme: romance—yet another reason the Holiday season brings pressure to get into a relationship. 

“We’re fed this idea that Christmas isn’t right if you’re not with someone. Social media, such as TikTok and Snapchat, presents love as such an easy process and doesn’t show the amount of work and emotion that goes into a relationship,” NC senior Ally Ward said. 

It seems as though the media, especially social media, portrays an extremely skewed reality of romance and the dating world. The internet romanticizes mundane behaviors, creating trends, and makes those trends seem desirable for all participants; but not everyone should leap into a relationship. 

It may become difficult to separate true desires from what the media tells users to enjoy. This can cause harm, especially for teenagers, since a large part of their self-worth comes from feeling accepted in the public eye. 

“…People automatically assume that a person who has a high number of followers is more liked than a person who has a few followers. Therefore, with that view, we let social media metrics define our sense of self-worth,” Medium author Dana Hammoud said. 

Longing for public acceptance and praise may present itself as the largest reason why single students (and adults) long to find a partner during the Holidays. However, the single people of our community, young and old, should remember their individual worth; a significant other will neither increase nor decrease that value. Happy Holidays!