Sometimes I feel like I’m Theodore from the movie Her, living in a futuristic world where people fall in love with the voices of their operating systems. There’s one scene in which Theodore sets up a camera on his shirt so that he and Samatha can experience the same surroundings. It’s all too familiar for me. I’ve been on countless virtual dates (some where I’ve even wished I could finagle a camera set-up similar to Theodore's).

Being in an international long-distance relationship before the pandemic, love was already deeply intertwined with technology for me and my partner. But after the challenges of unforeseen border closings, sometimes it feels like we really might just be voices to each other. There’s a Local Natives lyric I've been thinking about that goes, “She flew across the sea / we talked on a small screen / a cubism dream / the most beautiful squares I’d ever seen.” I took those "beautiful squares" to be the pixels that form the face of the singer’s partner on a screen.

This sentiment is more relevant to me than ever. In this moment,  the intersection of love and technology is undeniable. Not only can the digital world connect us to people close and far, it's also exempt from the risks of the virus. Because of this, we’ve all adapted. I’ve seen friends cultivate new romances solely over FaceTime. Are we already in the era of digital love? Was the idea behind Her not so far off? 

It’s February. The month of Valentine’s Day. And for better or worse, the holiday demands reflection on personal relationships. This year, I’m embracing the fact that technology is my valentine.

Download the first page of Sedona's kit here.

The second page here. 

The first background here. 

The second one here.

And the third one here.