In today’s world, it’s easy to show off your significant other. Some might even consider tagging your boyfriend or girlfriend as just another level to reach in the dating game. I must admit that I used to be one of those people. Even my closest friends post pictures of their boyfriends on every social media site there is. Every time I log onto Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, my feed is full of young couples posing next to each other; whether it would be at the beach, at a lake house or even just on a couch in their living room. I hear my friends complain all the time about arguments they have with their boyfriend or girlfriend because the other liked someone’s picture or because someone DM’d them; I can’t say that I’m mad I don’t have that problem. I don’t have that worry in my relationship.

Seven-months ago, I started dating a guy who came from a different world than I did. I came from ATVs and dirt bikes, fishing and hunting and the small town, everyone-knowing-everyone-else’s-business world. He came from the fast life of Florida, and if you ask him, that’s exactly how he’ll explain it to you; the fast life. Everyone is trying to grow up as fast as possible. He comes from the clubbing, the beach and the city life. He comes from a world where his friends have as many followers as Kim Kardashian (not literally but it seems pretty close to it compared to my mere 900).

If anyone who didn’t know me took a look at any of my social media, they would have no idea that I’m in a serious, committed relationship. From the first day that my boyfriend and I realized we were falling for each other, he made it very clear that he didn’t want to advertise our relationship to our followers. He explained that we didn’t need to post our business for the world to see. He promised me that life would be a lot easier, and we would have a lot less arguments if we didn’t post a million pictures of each other a week. At first, I was hesitant. I hated the idea but figured I would give it a shot. As our relationship progressed and we started going places worthy of sharing with the social media world, it would bug me more and more that I made the no-social-media promise to him. We took so many adventures, from the beach to Cleveland, Ohio to visit our best friend from school.

Going through my relationship, social-media-free has definitely been tough (especially when you have such a good looking boyfriend like mine and you want to show him off). But, I can honestly say that the no-social-media is working for us. I’ve never had such open communication in a relationship like I do with him. I’ve never felt so comfortable with anyone else except for him. Being in a relationship with no social media has really helped us to avoid a lot of arguments. Don’t get me wrong, no relationship is perfect, but I would say that mine is just about as close as it could be to perfect. We still casually “like” each other’s pictures and posts but don’t do anything extra. We aren’t petty. He doesn’t get mad about other guys liking or commenting on my posts just like I don’t get upset when other girls like or comment on his posts. We both know where we stand in the relationship and living in a social-media-free relationship may have been the best move that my boyfriend and I made for us.