NEW YORK — If you’re a fan of public displays of affection, start preparing this year’s Valentine’s Day tweet now! A new survey finds almost half of Americans in relationships want their partners to post more “online PDA.”
A OnePoll survey asked 2,000 Americans — 97 percent of whom said they have some experience with social media — to weigh in on the amount of PDA they encounter online. According to the results, the average coupled social media user posts about their significant other between three and four times a month.
That may not be enough for the 46 percent of coupled users who said they wished their partners would share more content about them. However, it’s likely too much for the 27 percent who want to be the subject of fewer posts.
There’s also no winning in the court of public opinion either, the data suggests. Commissioned by From You Flowers, the survey also revealed that half (51%) of social media users admit to judging people who post about being in a relationship “too much.”
On the other hand, almost the same number of respondents (49%) assume a relationship might be on rocks if neither member has posted recently — within the past six months, on average. Overall, a third (36%) of all social media users polled say they typically enjoy seeing romantic PDA on their timelines. Just 24 percent say they dislike or even hate it.
Examples of platonic or familial PDA don’t suffer from the same kind of backlash. Only seven percent of Americans say they react negatively to seeing posts about other peoples’ friends and family members. Fifty-two percent have a positive reaction to these posts.
Most people like seeing holiday PDA on social media
While 81 percent of respondents have published a PDA post of their own in the past, some may not have had their whole heart in it. Three in five people (61%) say they feel pressured to post about what everyone else is posting about during a holiday season.
Another 56 percent feel guilty if they don’t post about their loved ones on birthdays or anniversaries. Another 60 percent will even plan or schedule their content in advance of these occasions. Considering that families across the country are still social distancing from each other however, 44 percent admit they’ve grown more tolerant of PDA than they were before the pandemic.
“Now that we’re so isolated, it’s so much more important to document those times we feel connected to each other, whether you share them online or not,” says From You Flowers CEO Michael Chapin in a statement. “Seeing someone’s post or text message about the gift you sent them isn’t the same as face-to-face interaction, but it certainly helps to remind us that we’re not as alone as we feel right now.”
Even in quarantine though, you can sometimes overdo it on social media. An overwhelming 73 percent of respondents believe that people still post too much information about themselves online, even now.