Posting your partner on social media can be nerve-wracking if you haven’t been together for very long. What if you break up a week later? What if your followers have opinions on your relationship that you just don’t want to hear?
That’s why some people opt for a “soft launch” instead. And Instagram just announced a new feature, the Pixel effect, that will make it even easier to discreetly share your partner with the world. But users are concerned that this tool will create trouble in many relationships.
Instagram recently announced a feature that allows users to pixelate images that they post on their stories
Last week, Instagram shared a post with the caption “soft launching? we got you.” It explained that users now have access to a Pixel effect when editing Stories. Essentially, they can write a prompt to Meta AI asking it to blur out a person or object in their image.
But some users expressed concerns about how this feature may impact relationships
Some users pointed out positive uses for this tool: to keep a child’s face off of social media or to remove a stranger from the background of a pic.
However, because of the way the feature was announced, many instantly realized how detrimental it could be to relationships. If your partner goes out of their way to blur your face in a photo, do you really want to be in a relationship with them?
Instagram advertised the Pixel effect as a way to soft launch a romantic partner on social media
If you’re not super familiar with social media lingo or you’ve been married since before the advent of Facebook, you may not know the term “soft launch.” This is something many social media users do to hint at the fact that they’re in a relationship before publicly announcing it with a photo of their partner’s face.
It may include a photo of their dinner with another person sitting across from them, a photo of their legs with someone’s hand on their thigh, a photo of the two of them from behind so you can’t see their faces… You get the idea.
“It's a light-handed, slow-moving way to show just enough of your new boo on your Instagram stories or social media that family, friends, and onlookers may assume you're in a relationship—but don't have all the deets quite yet,” the Knot explains.
This is the opposite of a “hard launch,” where someone posts a photo that explicitly shows that they're in a relationship and where their partner is easily identifiable.
People choose to soft launch relationships for a variety of reasons
While soft launching may seem like a foreign concept to older generations, it does appeal to younger generations for several reasons. They might simply want privacy; not everyone who follows them on Instagram needs to know all of the details about their personal life.
If a person has been single for a while, they might also be hesitant to share their new relationship for fear that it may not work out. Plus, it can be fun to be a bit mysterious. Despite what social media may want you to believe, you don’t have to share every aspect of your life online.
Now, when it comes to the Pixel effect on Instagram, the comments on the announcement post made it clear that the feature is controversial. But licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Tony Davis says that it may actually be wise to keep your relationship off of social media.
Keeping your relationship offline may actually be wise
While it can be tempting to show your partner off to the world, Davis explains that this can create pressure to keep up appearances. The couple may start doing or posting things just for content, and they might be ashamed to admit that there are issues in the relationship for fear of their followers finding out.
It’s certainly not necessary to post your partner on social media to be in a healthy relationship. But as we’ve seen from the reaction to this announcement, not everyone is on the same page about soft launching.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this new feature in the comments below, pandas. Would you be willing to try it out? Then, if you’re interested in checking out another article from Bored Panda discussing Instagram, look no further than right here.
Relationship experts are even weighing in on the new feature
Some users didn't see any issues with the effect, noting that it can be useful
However, others thought that the feature could be problematic
And some pointed out that we should be less worried about social media in general
