Is Valentine's Day Really Overrated?

The perfect Valentine’s day card, the perfect gift, the perfect date, ian’t that already enough pressure in a relationship without having to live up to sone crazy romantic ideals on Valentine’s Day?

Have you ever tried to understand why Valentine’s Day is so celebrated all over the world? It is a day for pop culture, tv shows, and many websites to chase money, followers, and customers. The big influence of this holiday  has an impact on the human mind and it shapes public opinion. There are many people without a partner for Valentine's Day and the excessive coverage of this made up holiday on social and mass media has a very negative effect on their moods. It might be hard to believe, but even Valentine’s Day has a dark side.

Valentine’s Day is a deliberate way for companies to make money by producing millions of cards, toys, stickers and other useless stuff. If you want to be rich and make this holiday your favorite one then you should learn how to become a florist, confectioner or a trader. These companies want to get people to celebrate this holiday. This holiday of happiness and love usually costs a lot of money. Companies raise prices on things like red roses, candies, teddy bears, and other silly products because they know that people will be desperate and forced to buy something for their significant other, even if it’s just out of obligation.

I believe that the people that make Valentine's Day so overrated have a little bit of selfish personalities. They only think about their business and different ways to make more money and popularity,forgetting that their promotional activity and their advertisements can make someone depressed and make them feel bad. People that are single hate this day because it makes them lonely, stressed and full of sorrow during the whole day. Some people are lucky to have the opportunity to celebrate this holiday with their family and forget their loneliness, but many are not that lucky to have someone to spend the time with.

In a 2004 study they surveyed 245 undergraduate students about their relationships one week before and one week after Valentine’s day. They found out that relationships that were in a bad state before Valentine’s Day were more likely to end their relationship because they did not celebrate this holiday, which shows that Valentine’s Day can exert negative effects on the loving relationships of different couples. 

There are many couples who see their relationships suffer as a result of seeing a lot of couples walking along the streets and they come to a conclusion that the spark of love and romance in their own relationship has already faded away, when perhaps they just express their love and romance in a different way, or on the other 364 days of the year. 

So what’s a young person to do? There is nowhere to escape. You can’t go anywhere Valentine's Day is not celebrated; it’s overrated and celebrated in almost every country. People are not able to forget about Valentine Day because there are symbols about it everywhere. Everything is  decorated with pink ribbons, red hearts, love poems and paper heart garlands. Every restaurant is booked with almost all the tables full of couples pretending like they are romantic for this one day. Even attempting to stay home and watch some TV won’t change anything because the popular shows are all talking about Valentine Day.

Even if you don’t want to celebrate this holiday you are made to feel guilty for not celebrating it. You will remember that your friends and family will expect you to congratulate them on this day. And if you don’t prepare beautiful and romantic gifts for them or refuse to spend that time with them, they might end up getting offended. As a result many people feel obliged to buy or send Valentine cards to their loved ones. I think that people feel the forced declaration of love and feel like it is pointless because the tradition of exchanging presents has nothing in common with love. 

I talked to some Seniors at Neuwirth about their opinion. Lizbeth Roque said that she believes that Valentines is just about couples because there's nothing a single person can do on this day. She also believes that this solely special day for a lot of people can end up destroying some relationships because they see other people getting stuff from their partners and they are not getting anything from theirs, which could make them feel bad about themselves and the relationship that they have. As someone who has been single for the past few years, seeing other people getting presents and something that they love and care about with them made her feel insecure about herself. Another senior at Neuwirth said that this day is for anyone that has a special someone in their life that can be a partner or just a friend that they really care about. And that it can make people feel pressured to buy something for someone else because they are seeing other people getting things to buy something for someone else. 

So this year, no matter what kind of relationship you have, resist the pressure to buy a silly flower or balloon for someone else. You can choose to resist the pressure and not participate. And if you’re single, remember that you are amazing and don’t need the validation from another person to prove your worth. Valentine's Day is overrated and we’d all be better off if we just ignored it.