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Yoliswa Dube
IN times past, the sentimental lot kept photo albums as a storehouse of memories of their loved ones.

To date, the old folk still have stacks and stacks of photo albums which their children and grandchildren can flip through and for a moment live in their past.

But the advent of information communication technologies has slowly taken away the hard copy photo album from our night stands and replaced it with various social media platforms which have photo saving functions.

Today, lots of people share their lives on different social media platforms and in the process, archive their pictures so they can take a peek at them whenever they want to. Often we see the #UmuntuWami, #MySmileKeeper, #MyHeartBeat kind of hashtags on pictures of couples who can’t hide their love.

They share a love so strong they are not ashamed for the whole world to know about their romance.

But there’s a special kind of people, women particularly, who will still use the #UmuntuWami hashtag on a blurred or censored picture of their lover.

What’s the point if people can’t see the face of this your lover? Some take pictures with their purported partners, now referred to as baes, but cover the lover’s face with a humungous emoticon. Is the fire burning so wildly you can’t hide it but don’t want to share it in its entirety with the world?

It’s undeniable that social media has become a big part of our daily lives with various discourses being deduced from the pictures and posts we make on various social media platforms on a daily basis. Instead of picking up the phone to catch up with you nowadays, people just go to your Facebook or Instagram pages to see what has been happening in your life.

More so now with WhatsApp statuses that more people have access to every other minute, it is so much easier to get a glimpse into someone’s thoughts and feelings as well as get an appreciation of the happenings in their lives. So, when one shares a picture in which they claim to be with their “lover” but hide that very lover’s face, it points to a few things wrong with the relationship.

It could mean that they are dating a married man and are essentially the side dish. They are probably in love with this person, want the world to know about him, but are bound by the terms of engagement.

On the other hand, they may not be married but the guy could probably be involved with someone else. Again, you are the “side bae” and can’t flaunt your “love” freely. It is rather sad that women would willingly involve themselves in relationships whose end is as dark as the back of a cave. Such relationships are likely to reach a dead end where the side dish ends up with a broken heart.

If one can stoop so low to become someone’s “side bae” instead of getting a partner they can call their own and be in a fulfilling relationship with, it points at certain character flaws that have for years past given women a bad name. Where is the fun in ducking and diving where your heart is concerned?

People are set up differently, that can’t be disputed, but if you must date another woman’s man, don’t post pictures of you together. If you’re happy being the side dish, stay in the background and let the main meal flourish.