Category: Love

Islam, Life, Love, Opinion

The Ways I’ve Worried – Huffington Post opinion piece

Raidah Shah Idil

1069213_endless_greenThe Ways I’ve Worried is an exquisite and heart-wrenching piece on the fragility and beauty of life. The author writes about her relationship with her first husband, who had cystic fibrosis, and how that impacted on the way she lived, loved, and lost.

Mortality is one of the defining characteristics of humanity. That’s one thing we all agree on. Everyone has different ways of coping, and for me, it’s my faith and the love of my family and friends. The next life is better than this one, and that very yardstick of eternity puts everything into perspective.

facebook, Life, Love

Facebook kills romance

Raidah Shah Idil

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Ha, bet that title got your attention 🙂

I read a cool Huffington Post article Facebook Valentines: Study Finds Oversharing On Personal Life Hurts Romantic Relationships. This is a particularly telling paragraph:

One of the problems with your significant other opening up on Facebook is that “you feel less special and unique,” Kansas doctoral student in psychology Juwon Lee concluded. Many times you feel they’re trusting you with intimate information, but then you see them sharing their feelings with everyone, Lee said.

The study goes on to describe the relationship between disclosure and feelings of intimacy – namely, the more you disclose about your romantic relationship, the less intimacy you actually feel with your partner.  This might seem paradoxical in an age of constant FB status updates –  OMG I want to SHARE everything with EVERYONE – but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Think of all those quiet moments of intimacy which you share with the person you love – that’s special. Flailing it about on Facebook takes away that magic only the two of you can share.

Food for thought, as the world braces for another Valentine’s Day onslaught.