Social media often brings enjoyment to our marriage. We love sending reels to one another and frequently watch the best ones together. However, we have noticed a concerning trend in marriage “content” online. Some of the worst examples involve men and women posting compromising or even humiliating videos of their spouses to generate engagement. These videos almost always focus on a spouse’s particular fault: A husband posts a video complaining about his wife’s “unrestricted” spending habits, or a wife records her husband’s “undeserved” nap.
These attempts at humor can damage a marriage by turning a spouse’s perceived faults into public entertainment. Beneath many of these disputes — and the responses they generate — is a genuine question about what it means to love one another.
Pope Benedict XVI proposed that we must move beyond private conceptions of love that are centered on the individual. Instead, we are called to be in communion with the Trinity. “Authentic love is transformed into a light that guides the whole of life toward its fullness, generating a society in which human beings can live,” Benedict said. “The communion of life and love which is marriage thus emerges as an authentic good for society.”
The tricky thing about social media is that it can create a distorted picture of real life and present a false society, where the practical goods of love and life take a back seat. Such portrayals can make the private conceptions of love that Pope Benedict warned about seem more real than the love we experience in our own marriages.
For us, telling the truth about our marriage encourages us to embrace what we have to give to society. That begins with the conviction that honoring one’s spouse is a gift to all.
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TREVOR WILLIAMS is a visiting assistant professor of theology at DeSales University and a member of Nashville (Tenn.) Council 544. His wife, LIZZIE REEZAY, hosts the popular YouTube channel LizziesAnswers.








