Engagement Ring Selfies: Good or Bad?

It seems like every time we open Facebook these days, somebody is showing off a brand new engagement ring. And while we wish nothing but happiness to all of those couples, it does get a bit old (sorry, friends). It made us think… is sharing your engagement with everyone you’ve ever known, even long forgotten acquaintances, really the right way to go?

A brief look through the internet has revealed that this is quite a contentious issue. ‘Glass half full’ types see nothing wrong with sharing a happy moment, while ‘glass half empty’ types lament the fact that nothing is private anymore. To be honest, we can see valid points to both sides of the argument. Here are some pros and cons to consider…

To Share: Your engagement is one of the happiest moments of your entire life. It’s up there with giving birth to children, getting married, and achieving life long dreams (or at least, we hope it is). You’ll be so overjoyed and so excited that your natural instinct will be to shout it from the top of a mountain so the whole world will know about it. And you should! It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments that you should experience with all of your heart.

When it comes to posting on social media, there is one big plus. It’s the easiest and fastest way to let your extended social circle know that you’ve reached this milestone. And if you’re a tech-savvy type of couple, chances are many of your friends will be like that too, and it’s the most appropriate way to make them feel part of the big moment.

Logistics aside, let’s face facts; humans are vain, and social media only makes us more so. Whether we realise it or not, we carefully craft an online persona for ourselves and we find pleasure in this being gratified in the forms of likes, shares and comments. Engagement posts always get way above and beyond the average reaction, so it’s natural to want to do that. But guess what; social media is not actually that important to the bigger picture. You won’t be worrying about how few likes something got 10 years from now (or how many). So why the hell shouldn’t you have your moment in the spotlight?

To Not Share: And now for the cons. First and foremost, let’s talk about security. Remember how BOTH of Kim Kardashian’s engagement rings were stolen from her hotel room while she was held at gunpoint recently? That happened because she’s constantly flaunting her bling on social media. Most people won’t have such a public profile or such valuable jewellery as Kim, but that’s not to say you won’t ever be a target. It’s just good sense not to have an endless supply of close-ups of your new rock all over social media, whether your accounts are public or private.

For the most part, engagements are very happy occasions where everybody, even people you haven’t spoken to in years, will want to wish you well. But nobody is perfect, and it’s impossible to please everybody all of the time. Whether it reaches your eyes/ears or not, there will be a small minority of people in your social network who have something bitchy to say about your engagement ring, your choice of life partner, or pretty much anything about you. It’s unavoidable, but making certain details unavailable for them to see certainly helps reduce it.

And now let’s turn to the contentious part; privacy. Some people believe that important life events like engagements should be kept between the couple and their families, and we can kind of see the point. Making a huge announcement to everyone who will listen does arguably dilute the meaning of the occasion. Is it really necessarily for your school friends that you haven’t seen or spoken to in 10 years to know about what’s going on in your life now? If they were really important to you, they’d be your real-life friends as well as your Facebook friends, right? Just something to consider.

Whether you share or not, remember it’s your choice. Do whatever makes you happy, and congratulations!