Valentine’s 2025: Love in the Age of AI and Stolen Dates ❤️🤣

Valentine’s Day, celebrated yearly every 14th day of February, falls on a Friday this year. For some, this is a dreadful reality. First, not because of the day but rather the day it falls. A Friday demands a proper treat like a weekend away as opposed to a mid-week day with suits lunch or dinner. The second dreadful reality is for those who believe in the day yet they are literally single. Technical singlehood can be addressed for street-wise individuals.

For me, it is in the public domain that I don’t subscribe to the rationale of Valentine’s Day. Given I am overly ambitious at times, I have harboured contesting for the chairperson of the international senior bachelor’s committee and one of the requirements is to attest non-belief in the day which gives me a head start.

On a serious note though, I have shared my thoughts before that my love, whatever type it is, will always be shared every single day, all the time. Putting aside only one day in a year to express love in a special way conflicts with my principles of what love should be. But what do I know?

I have heard that love is an expensive affair materially – often transactional. Sometimes we need to earn it and other times we need to justify it. Again, the moment we ascribe such sentimental concepts to love, some sort of meaning is lost. No wonder the dog and cat have become the companions of choice for some.

Valentines and Love in the Age of AI

What of love in the age of the internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Today love is a click away. If not a click, then a card swipes away. And if all that seems far-fetched because our card is low on cash, then a chat with a virtual and artificial partner can do.

So, 2025’s Valentine’s Day is one of mixed approaches. Traditionally, we will see flowers change hands and love cards posted or delivered. Credit and debit cards will be swiped as people elude for a moment away in some exclusive locations. Songs will be composed and sung and some marriage proposals will be made.

However, it doesn’t stop there. To the single pact, a virtual ‘feeling’ of Valentine will be elicited. Even a chat with Siri will bring some good feelings of inclusion so that nobody is forgotten. At the end of the day, it is the internet and AI that levels up things.

This far, someone might be thinking I am the man who doesn’t believe in love. No. In fact, I can love. I love. I have loved. And I will love. My only paradox about love is that we harbour different realities about what it should look like. We have to be vulnerable yet maintain our individuality, give and receive, and be selfless yet find ways to attain satisfaction and personal happiness in the whole mix. It is not an easy fete.

I went out with a pact of friends in love a few weeks ago and more than two-thirds of our time out there, they were on their phones. I am sure that it is the same thing at home. I found myself thinking that love has tended to be trivialized in the internet age of getting it a click away. Seems today and in the days to come love will be a matter of convenience.

To pour out feelings from the heart, AI comes in handy with good juicy lines. Those of us who have to find ourselves first before we can pour our affections out lose it because while trying to be realistic about this whole love thing, AI with insights from Giacomo Casanova marauds and manipulates the human ego into submission.

Just like that, we are missing the opportunity to connect with others on a deeper level. And that is why, for the believers of Valentine’s Day and those of us who believe in love in its entirety, we should approach things differently this year.

Changing the Narrative

As you plan for that Friday date or those dates you will have for the rest of the year, ensure the use of digital gadgets is at its bare minimum. It is time we redeemed our stolen dates and once again connected with others (our partners, wives, husbands, family members and friends) in a deeper sense. Don’t overindulge in the show-off dates borrowed from celebrity showbiz. Simple but deep and meaningful is more valuable than extravagant and trivial.

With all this advice I am minting here, I understand the prophet Jeremiah in the Bible speaks of the heart of man that is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, and he even wonders which other man can know it. On that note, we should look beyond the other person’s heart and desire and do our part first. We decide to reduce gadget use. We purposefully plan to be more fully present and work our way to loving beyond the superficial.

We ought to be intentional about our material expectations from others as a show of love beyond what the spirit of Valentine’s dictates. 2025 needs to be a year we perhaps need to redefine moral obligations and the meaning we stamp on our relationships, marriages and family associations. It is time we put time into building strong and posterity-bound relationships beyond AI and Valentines.

Good relations, marriages and friendships are built. The mentality that they are readily made is ill-advised. And a single day in a year – Valentine – isn’t enough to show that special tinge for a whole year. It needs to be an everyday endeavour. If anything, technology can only be an enabler in this whole fiasco and its ethical use with discipline can mean better families, happier relationships and fulfilling marriages.

Am I sounding too ideal? Not really, all these are just practical things we can do over time to better things. These are more like philosophies we can adapt to better our approach to loving others and being loved. The overarching principle is being intentional about it.

I wrap up this piece with the key takeaway of the day. Let us make our every day in 2025 and beyond a little Valentine. A kind word and gesture, an encouraging smile or even a short quality time free of distraction with our loved ones and we would have redefined how we relate with each other forever. All these need effort and it simply starts with just doing it.

Postscript.

Over the years, I have often written at least a few articles about love yearly on this platform. Whereas I have always sounded stone hard on the eros love as an individual to a level of being discerned as apathetic, I must say that I care about quality marriages, relationships and families. As time goes on, I begin to grasp the architecture of love. I begin to be intentional in seeking the scarlet tinge of eros love. I will be there. I hope this shines some rays of hope.