Telling someone that you love them seems to say so much without actually meaning anything. The words are empty. Especially at this age, it’s hard to know if you actually love someone or just think you do.

You can’t truly love anyone in high school. Love is an intense feeling of great affection and is often thought to be felt at during high school but is not.

Explaining what love feels like is extremely hard, maybe even impossible because it’s different for everyone. If you say that you’re in love but can’t explain it, then how do you know?

The word love itself is used too loosely in today’s society. Love is far from uncommon when it comes to a teens vocabulary; common phrases like “I love ice cream,” “I love your shirt,”  “I love Netflix.” are used daily. It is said so frequently that it loses meaning. The more you say it, the less it means. Saying “I love you” is not a pick up line.

When people say “I love you” in relationships at this age it starts with one person saying it and the other person either saying it back right away out of habit or being completely shocked by it. Most teenagers in relationships say it back because they don’t want the relationship to be ruined. Do they really love them or, are they just saying it to be polite?

Teenagers use the word love everyday. But most likely they don’t actually “love” the person or thing they’re talking about. They just say it because that’s what they’ve always done, it’s what society expects them to, Teenagers in today’s society may not actually love their boyfriend/girlfriend as much as they admit, but it is due to the way society has brainwashed them that they think they do. 

According to Pew Research, 35% of teens in the United States, ages 13-17 have either dated, hooked up with, or were romantically involved with another person. The majority of those people probably told the other person that they loved them. However, odds are they didn’t truly mean it when they said it though.

In reality, teenagers don’t have enough life experiences to know what love is or what it’s like. According to mentalhealthdaily.com, a human brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. A teenager’s brain is not physically mature enough to fully appreciate and love someone they’re close to. They might think that they love someone but later on in their life they realize what they had felt during high school wasn’t true love they were feeling

It’s not impossible to marry your high school sweetheart but true love isn’t usually found at such a young age. It’s found later in your life when you can appreciate people more.