Gonna give a lot of you advice you should've heard a long time ago but people are afraid to tell you because they are afraid of social friction.

Just because you see a happy couple online doesn't mean they are genuinely like that or even that good together, capturing a single moment with media Read more… & letting that dictate how you see someone is not reliable.

In fact many people that excessively post about their lives in that manner are doing so because they lack something & are using the internet to feel better through the dopamine hit of a few likes.

Expecting so much of people in general like you have a hidden checklist they have to meet is a good way to end up alone & miserable, those close to you are often too afraid of social friction to do anything other than gas you up in that mindset too.

Of course you should be judging people based on their actions but having a billion prerequisites they have to meet before you've even experienced the content of their character to the point that they're competing with the fiction section of a library isn't going to end well for you as you'll be waiting decades for a perfect checklistee that may never come.

What's really important is how they treat you, leaning off balance for someone who can check every box off your list will make you flop to the floor while they likely have less reasons to be serious about pursuing you, a very often overlooked part is the perspective of the one rare person you'd want to pursue or to pursue you is that they aren't likely to feel the same.