Think Social is a blog from the Paley Center for Media that focuses on the public benefits of social media. It’s an incredible blog and one that you must follow if you are looking for thoughtful reflection on both the social and political potential of social media.

And here’s the latest example of what makes this blog so wonderful: Ben Cajee’s delightful reflection on how social media changes the rules of romantic love. He asks:

So what does it mean to be in love in 2010? Do we love differently? Have our attitudes towards love and the feelings evoked changed over the last hundred or a thousand years?

And he suggests:

Perhaps we’re held back by our technologies, the immediacy of online messaging and the possibility of loss of face over being rejected via so many different social mediums. Or maybe it relates to certain individuals feeling the need to document their whole romantic episodes on social networking sites.

I’ve spent a lot of time and tech thinking about how to make social media support my existing relationship; arguably, too much time. Ben’s post made me feel lucky to have settled down before my social media compulsion took hold, since I suspect I would have been one to spend hours on plentyoffish, and just as much time documenting each date. As he points out, that’s hardly conducive to romance.

But as a happily married person, I have to say that social media can be romantic. My husband and I exchange affectionate comments on Twitter, write romantic tributes into blog posts and cartoons, and use social media to sweeten our date nights. Is it possible social media is only romantic once you’re already settled down?