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View all search results‘From this to this’: The latest relationship goal in the digital era
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R
omantic courtship practices in the digital age may begin with a harmless message sent to a prospective partner’s social media inbox, followed by a consistent exchange of communication -- and finally, the most difficult choice of all, the decision to spend the rest of one’s life with someone.
People often meet their significant others in unexpected places. Many today, for instance, would be able to relate to Lulu Husna and her husband’s love story. Lulu found Bayu Joo, the man she would eventually marry, with just a few keystrokes. Their courtship initially started when they followed each other on Twitter.
“I don’t remember for sure [what the first topic of the chat was],” she said. “But [I believe] it was a casual conversation about where we’d been and what we’d been doing all day. We also had a series of discussions about our Twitter friends.”
Lulu, who now lives in Depok, West Java, with her husband, finally met him in person after a month of communication. After two months of becoming acquainted with him, she inquired about the nature of their relationship, and they intuitively decided to date.
Fajar Tri Harjanto from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, offers a slightly different story about how social media led him to meet his soulmate. He first encountered his now-wife, Dwi Prihartiwi, during Ramadan in 2017, while hanging out in a local food court waiting for iftar time.
However, Fajar did not consider that particular moment as “love at first sight”. He did not think much of it until they met again, when Fajar was still a university student.
“I went on a trip with my friends during the semester break, and finally I met the missus [again],” the 25-year-old said. He trusted his instincts this time to start the courtship and tried to learn more about her.
