Is your partner the problem, or is it your Instagram feed?

A recent dating app survey examines how relationship Reels influence modern Indian daters. It highlights misplaced comparisons and how social media provied advice without much context of real-life relations.Social media has significant influence on people's dating life (Photo: Pexels)New Delhi,Oct 22, 2026 16:43 ISTYou open social media, and there it is: a Reel that somehow is in sync with whatever is going on in your head. More often than not, it is a little too relatable (at times to the extent of being creepy).And when it comes to your love life, well, social media can very easily become a source of what people call ‘kalesh’. Wonder how? Courtesy of all those Reels that pack dating advice into under a minute, saying, “If they wanted to, they would have.” Then there’s all that relationship content explaining what a “high-value partner” should look like. Add to that couples showcasing what “relationship goals” look like through surprise videos, grand gestures and picture-perfect romantic moments.And before you know it, watching such content turns into a relationship audit.A recent survey by dating app QuackQuack, involving over 10,000 Indian daters aged 22 to 38 across metros and smaller cities, examined what happens when this endless stream of relationship advice enters their love lives. The recurring concern? Something that sounds utterly convincing in a 30-second video may be missing quite a bit of context when applied to a real-life relationship.Viral verdicts “If they don’t surprise you like that, they aren’t the one.”“Princess treatment or bare minimum?” To everyone who is in a relationship or situationship, be honest: have you ever sent your partner one of these Reels and expected them to take the hint? And if that sparked a fight instead of a grand gesture. Well, we can see the smirks.Such videos make complicated feelings sound easy to decode, often without knowing the full story. In the survey, 4,694 daters aged over 25, hailing from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and smaller cities, felt that problems arise when people apply the same relationship rules to every couple.Take the person who needs some silence after work. Six in 10 men surveyed pushed back against the assumption that wanting space automatically means being emotionally unavailable. Similarly, 38 per cent of daters felt that being unable to organise an elaborate date shouldn’t be mistaken for making little effort. Social media advice is not always one size fits all (Photo: Pexels) QuackQuack’s founder and CEO, Ravi Mittal, commented, “We forget that relationships come with context; right now, people are being hand-fed content, and while there’s a lot of helpful information out there, it can also be unwise to blindly apply every relationship rule to your own. You watch a few reels, and suddenly a missed call is not just a missed call; it’s emotional negligence. It might be in some cases, but not in all. That’s an important difference to understand.”But for some, it has also been a dating lesson.48 per cent of participants felt that dismissing its influence would be unfair. Interestingly, about 27 per cent of women in their 30s said it could be eye-opening at times. According to the survey, four in 10 people said they had learnt about boundaries from watching other people’s relationship content.And the irony of it all?People know they’re seeing a polished version of someone’s relationship, yet they fall into the comparison trap. And the participants agree how often such content is simply performative to gain followers and fame.In the survey, 3,347 respondents said they recognised that online relationships were being presented selectively, with several retakes to capture the "perfect" moments, but still compared them with their own. According to experts, what goes on social media is just a selective bit of anyone's lifestyle and not the full context of their relations. (Photo: Pexels) One of the participants in the dating survey, Akriti from Bangalore, said, “Relationship trends created on social media reels, like grand, destination proposals, or cinematic surprises, and even the dreamy couple pictures, almost everything sets normal relationships up for failure. It’s a good thing to be inspired, but inspiration quickly turns into comparison for most of us. The quieter expression of love becomes undervalued. The fault is in us too, to a great extent.”The next time you forward a Reel with “This is so you” text, it might be little beneficial to not take everything at face value and indulge just for the fun of it. And better, ask what you actually need: more attention, clearer communication, reassurance, or perhaps a proper conversation about something that keeps happening.- Ends