2013 — Indosex

By 2013, Facebook Messenger and Twitter DMs had replaced the handwritten note. A romantic storyline in 2013 often began with a Facebook poke or an accidental "like" on a profile picture. The vulnerability of face-to-face confession was replaced by the safety of the text bubble. The "three dots" became the most anxiety-inducing romantic symbol of the year.

While Gatsby screamed, 2013 also whispered. Spike Jonze’s Her presented the most futuristic yet painfully human romantic storyline of the year: a man falling in love with an operating system (Scarlett Johansson’s voice). It forced audiences to ask: Does the physical matter? Simultaneously, Before Midnight (the third film in the Linklater trilogy) destroyed the fantasy of "happily ever after." Jesse and Celine were no longer starry-eyed youths; they were a 40-something couple screaming in a Greek hotel room about infidelity and sacrifice. For many critics, this was the most accurate portrayal of 2013 relationships —messy, verbal, and resilient. Indosex 2013

We didn't have a word for it in 2013, but the behavior was rampant. Social media allowed exes to "orbit" your life—liking your Instagram photo from 48 weeks ago, or viewing your Snapchat story within seconds. Long before "situationships" became a buzzword, 2013 relationships were defined by the lack of labels. People were "hanging out" for six months without ever defining the relationship (DTR). By 2013, Facebook Messenger and Twitter DMs had

The year taught us that romance was moving away from the grand gesture (the boombox over the head) and toward the micro-moment (sending the right meme at 3 AM). Why do we still search for 2013 relationships and romantic storylines today? Because 2013 was the last pure year of "analog hope" in a digital world. It was the year we still believed a text message might arrive, but we also checked our flip phones with anticipation. It was the year we watched fictional couples die, break up, or get together, and we felt it viscerally because our own love lives were just as confusing. The "three dots" became the most anxiety-inducing romantic