Love is a long known universal thing that has great power over people. It has been here for generations and generations and it is definitely on planet earth to stay. There is a popular saying that “Love makes the world go round”, and it surely does, but maybe the speed keeps increasing as days go by, reason behind? ‘The great power of technology.’

It is an undeniable fact that ever since the introduction of technology, the way we view love, the way we interact with our loved ones and even the way we meet our “Mr. & Mrs. Right” has definitely changed.

There is no doubt that technology has changed how we conduct our relationships and even the speed at which we are conducting them.

Zamani mahusiano yalifanya kazi hivi; Imagine of a person you like you can’t text them, you can’t call them, the only way that you could possibly contact them is by waiting for them to be sent to a nearby shop, wasipotoka home, the day will pass without communication. Creepy right?

Lakini angalia dunia ya sasa, first you don’t even need to go out to meet someone you like, that's what dating apps such as tinder does. You swipe, meet that hot girl and start a conversation. If you two are rapport, you move your relationship to instant texting and whatsapp, and then you have video calls on facetime. Even meeting physically might happen after weeks or months of dating. Now here is where we should give technology a round of applause for making love and relationships super easy to conduct. 

I spoke with one of my friends, Kennedy and to his point of view, technology has highly changed love from the very beginning, meaning the way we meet love interests which now is accelerated through social media and the way we communicate. “Ever since technology has been advanced in the country, there are several things that have affected the way we love. Firstly is the development of mobile applications such as FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. This has highly contributed in accessing information about people in an instant.

Apart from the social media, we also have instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram and WeChat. This has highly changed the way people interact. “Now it’s more personal” says Kennedy, if you have someone’s number it is very easy to interact easily, to track the pace onto which they reply to you and maybe even ‘get to know if they are interested in you as well.

One of the students aliniambia kuwa he meet his now girlfriend of 2 years on tinder.

“It doesn’t really matter where or how we met, what matters is what we feel for each other”, he was quoted. This is not the only case. Millions of people have met and even wedded because of technology.

Mwanafunzi mwingine named Harry akaniambia because of technology, now people are able to meet up online and date with people across nations. “Things like long distance relationships are also made easier”, he added.

With the help of social networks and apps such as Facetime and WhatsApp, relationships are brought closer than ever before. Long distance relationships are now possible because of technology; you don’t have to wait for years only to find out that the girl you left is married. Now we can keep track of the people we love and ensure that the relationship is intact. 

Nevertheless, technology has made romance possible for all ages. Before we used to see teens restricted from dating and even the whole process was believed to be immoral, but now the teens and youth are the ones leading when it comes to dating. All this is a result of technology. The youngsters can now date and meet online where there is very minimum age restriction. Although the question on whether if technology is decaying the morals and traditional principles is still debatable.

Despite of all these amazing things that technology has done to love, kuna hatari katika haya

Mojawapo ni easy management of multiple love interests. Thinking of the bright side, technology gives you a chance to view multiple people at once and make the choice that is suitable for you but on the downside, this also means a lot of cheating could be involved. It is now easy to manage having multiple affairs because you can easily communicate and satisfy all of them at once with just internet and a smart phone.

Teknolojia pia ime-accelerate sexual behaviors, affected romantism and increased breakups. Through technology, we are all starting to forget about “hearts and flowers”, opening doors and all flare of romantism that we now call “old school”.

People now care about looking good and sexually appealing for social media and even made it easy to break up with anyone, simply because you cannot see them.

Regardless, if technology is used well, it could be the perfect instrument into increasing romance and stability in relationships rather than destroying it.