‘Don’t Want to Come Off Needy’: My Boyfriend Has Not Shared Our Relationship On Instagram and I Haven’t Met Any of His Friends — Is He Hiding Something?

The Center gets to the heart of the lifestyle, parenting, relationships and finance conversations impacting the culture. Convene here to express and share personal and poignant points of view that arise in everyday life.

I’m in a new relationship and couldn’t be happier with my new guy! We met on a dating app, and it has been a whirlwind romance thus far. We have a lot in common and want a lot of the same things for our future. But one major red flag is giving me pause.

He surprised me with a trip to D.C. for our three-month anniversary. We took tons of pictures from our dinner dates to museum visits. I’m eagerly posting my photos intraday and even more when we get back to our hotel. He mostly accommodates me to take photos all the time (I believe in preserving memories), but then I noticed he didn’t post any of our photos together! Only a couple of shots from our visit to the museum.

STOCK PHOTO: Pinterest/WeHeartIt.com

I honestly didn’t want to come off as too needy for attention, so I politely asked him about this, and he stated that he makes it a point not to put his business out there for the world to see.

Related: I Found Out My Boyfriend Is Not the Father of My 2-Year-Old Child. I’m Torn About Telling the Biological Father Or Going Straight to Child Support Court.

I tried my best not to take it personally, but it makes me feel like he’s hiding me. I mean, why wouldn’t he want to broadcast me the way I want to broadcast him? I can admit that I have Insta-stalked his friends. I know all their pages, and I see how they freely share photos of their girlfriends. It’s just weird, and I don’t like the way it makes me feel.

A couple of months later, I am realizing that he is making one excuse after another for why I haven’t met one friend or family member of his, and there was still no photo of us on his social. He’s met several of my friends and happened to be over when my mom stopped by, so he’s even met her.

Recently, he received an invite to a fight party, and I was over the moon because it was the perfect opportunity for him to subtly announce to friends and family that we’re an item. Then he tells me that he’s not taking me because it’s more or less a ‘guy thing.’

Lo and behold, I see pictures on his friends’ IG with their significant other and other female friends. He assures me that he didn’t know there were going to be any women there and tells me that he adores me and is overjoyed to have me in his life.

He’s not had a lot of long-term relationships in the past. I don’t want to make assumptions about his motives or whether he’s cheating.

But the bottom line is my guy has failed to introduce me to family and friends, and we’re closing in on the half-year mark in our relationship.

Should I give up on the dream future we’ve talked so much about or should I confront him directly and demand that he introduces me to his people?

Send us your queries to [email protected] and let our readers offer some perspectives on how to navigate these conversations.

Independent journalism doesn't fund itself.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top