Is It Suddenly Cool to Tag Your Bae in Your Instagram Bio?

When I first heard about “Relationship Tagging”—a dating term writer Taylor Lorenz coined in her recent article for The Atlantic—it got me thinking…wait, people actually do this on social media? IG this is the modern day DTR.

It’s the act of including your significant other's handle in your Twitter or Instagram bio—normally in a cutesy way, like “Big fan of @Harry” or “Lover of @Lily.” This way, your relationship sits proudly among the other accolades normal Twitter and Insta bios include (location, work, or an *insert witty line here* thing).

So, wait, why exactly are people doing this?

“When people are in a relationship, they tend to experience a burst of many positive emotions. And when people feel happy, they want to share about it,” says psychotherapist Jaime Gleicher, LMSW.

Think about it as the millennial, internet-y way of wearing your middle school boyfriend’s football jersey on game day. It’s just a thing we do naturally when we want to show concrete proof that yes, we are, in fact, in a relationship.

But is this relationship tagging thing healthy?

While some may argue that it’s regressive and a setback for individuality, others think it’s pretty harmless to tout their cutie in their personal bio.

As Brena P., 23, says: “Some people think social media is the main problem in relationships, but in my case, we value it as a place to share our memories together. I think if your relationship is public anyway, people should know who your significant other is.”

As long as your relationship is solid and you’re not announcing your status too soon, there's no harm if you are relationship tagging because you're proud of your love, says Gleicher.

But if you're announcing your coupled-up status for other reasons (like, because you want your ex to see, or need something to confirm your relationship is legit), then that’s when you may have some probs.

“We live in an age where if something isn’t put online, it doesn’t seem real. But your relationship should be real to you, regardless if you’re tagging your partner in your bio for everyone else to see or not,” says Gleicher.

Liz B., 25, argues that the only reason why someone would include their boyfriend or girlfriend in a bio is because of insecurities. "I'm just confused by it. Is this supposed to deter me from liking your pictures or retweeting you?"

So what's the verdict?

If you're actually going to nail relationship tagging for what it is, forget the bases. It sounds simple, but you should make damn sure that this ‘ship is durable for a long time.

Nothing’s more embarrassing than announcing something publicly, and then deleting it shortly after because your old boo got back together with their on-and-off-again ex. There’s a reason why people stopped updating their relationship statuses on Facebook.

So the choice and verdict is really left to you. Do you go without a relationship tag or are you totally here for it?

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