Have a crush or a friend? Platonic vs romantic love

by Mackenzie Hedges

In an interview with former Athens High School student Bella Martin, I asked what she identifies in her own life that creates a difference between the two types of love. At one point Martin said, “the only real difference between platonic and romantic relationships is the physical attraction.” While reading about platonic versus romantic love, I noticed that multiple articles and journals would say that for a majority of people the only difference is whether or not they were physically attracted to the other person. People can be attracted to who someone is before they are attracted to what they look like. Junior Olivia Kaiser said, “I think that the two loves are not separate, but it starts with platonic love and romantic feelings grow over that.” The change between the two can often come with being more open to one another or spending more time with them.

It was mentioned in both interviews that there are often limits set in both relationships, but commonly the limits are different. People tend to be less physically affectionate with people in platonic relationships. Often physical touch or acts of affection are not used in friendships. For some people they are, but they express two different feelings. Martin mentioned, “you also know it’s platonic when you can talk about relationships and crushes openly without any implications, overthinking, mixed signals, etc.” A lot of it has to do with what you are comfortable doing and talking about with each relationship. Depending on topics like those, you can probably tell which relationship you are referring to.

There are multiple types of relationships; all types of positive relationships have fundamental similarities. Multiple benefits derive from each type of relationship. After asking Martin what she thinks the benefits are in both relationships she said, “The benefit of my relationship is that I have a person to be affectionate with. My guy friend, he’s the person I can be completely vulnerable with. I tell him everything without hesitation...there’s no wall there.” She also mentioned that relationships progress over time. The amount of time she has known each of them plays a role in the different relationships as well.

There is always an emotional connection between whatever relationship you have. For most people, it is the physical connection that commonly separates the two.