If you rely on long, lovey-dovey text messages to prove your boyfriend/girlfriend loves you, this article is for you.

If you only feel special when your boyfriend/girlfriend posts on Instagram about you, this article is for you.

If the only time you tell your boyfriend/girlfriend how you feel is when you're writing a Facebook caption under a "super cute" picture you took together, this article is for you.

We live in a technology-dominated day and age, letting our smartphones rule our lives. We have apps for everything and anything, and we can connect with anybody in this world with the simple tap of our index fingers, which sounds like such a great concept -- until you see how it's completely taken over our social lives.

Social media was designed to help people reach out, to not let distance be a reason you can't keep in contact with someone, yet instead, it seems as though more people use it to keep in touch with the people literally right beside them. Because of social media and the convenience of instant communication, there are so many people who rely on these things to build bonds and relationships. This technology-filled generation has lost touch with something humans need to grow and develop relationships with one another. This generation has lost touch with simply being able to be one-on-one with somebody. We've lost touch with being able to speak face to face with our own words; instead, we choose speaking with letters and symbols on a phone screen.

I've seen this proven firsthand one too many times. For example, I once sat with a group of friends, all of our attention focused on one girl who needed relationship advice. She complained that she didn't know whether her relationship had substance or not. She had begun to doubt if her boyfriend really even care at all. I sat there, trying to think of some kind of advice I could give that would give her hope to keep trying or to talk to her boyfriend, when one of the other girls in the group spoke up. "Well, does he ever text you long paragraphs? Do you guys text a lot in general? I mean, he does make you his 'woman crush Wednesday' every week and posts about you all the time. Guys don't do that unless they really care."

I had to hold my jaw so it didn't drop.

That's the criteria to prove someone cares? What? Instagram posts? Text messages? I wanted to say, "No. Don't worry if he posts about you; instead, worry how he acts when he's around you. Does he do small, kind things, like holding the door open or complimenting your smile? Does he respect you and remember the things you say? Does he show an effort to be around you?" I understand how great it can feel to read words on a screen, to be able to treasure text messages and posts on social media, but imagine this. Instead of having to read those words, what if you actually heard them? What if you could actually see the way your boyfriend's/girlfriend's face lit up as they spoke from their heart to you? What if you could actually hear their nerves rattle in their voice, because of how utterly terrifying it is to speak the truth of how you feel to the person you feel so strongly about?

Newsflash, you can. It's easy to forget that when the majority of people would rather hide behind a text screen to talk about how they feel, instead of dealing with their feelings the way people have for thousands of years. People would rather allow a Facebook post to speak for them, instead of speaking for themselves. It's crazy to think that in this generation only, people have developed a completely new way of communicating with others, and this has hindered us from physically communicating with others.

It seems, however, most people today are fine with relationships built around things that happen on your cell phone. It's easy to scroll on Instagram or Facebook and read long posts and text conversations posted with comments like "goals" or "this is what love really is." So many people see these posts without even knowing who these people are or if their relationship truly even means anything at all, and say to themselves, "I want somebody to send me messages like that." Why would you base someone's feelings on their text messages or social media posts? Having that kind of mindset makes it seem like texting and written posts are more important than how somebody actually acts around you, which really doesn't make sense. What if someone is just fluent with writing? What if someone steals your heart with a great text message, yet when you get around them, you can hardly hold a conversation about the weather?

My advice to those in relationships or those searching for relationships: don't date your phone. Don't look for someone who's going to text you 24/7. Don't look for someone who's going to post about you all the time. Yes, these things are great, but you can't let them be the only things supporting your relationship. Instead, look for someone who cares about your interests. Look for somebody who can't stand not being around you. Look for someone that isn't satisfied with just telling you how they feel over the phone but needs to see your face when they say these things. Because, I promise you, you will feel a love much stronger from one physically seen instead of one only seen on your phone screen.