“Valentine’s Day is a creature of capitalist consumption created to sell chocolate, and the holiday almost feels like a hollow representation of love and empathy. The messaging surrounding the celebration of love is almost tainted by the intense marketing scenes that bookend the holiday in pursuit of profit. A holiday truly celebrating love would be great, but I don’t think we will ever see that.”

Charlie Stephens | @CharlieStephns

“When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I can’t help being nostalgic for the days of Pixy Stix, neon red suckers and poorly scribbled notes from classmates in elementary school. But, in the present, what’s better than a day dedicated to reminding the people you care about most how much you love them? Valentine’s Day is all about what you make of it, whether that means roses, chocolates, a meal, a movie or none of the above.”

Drake Brignac |@drakebrignac

“Valentine’s Day is a scam. Our culture of hyper-consumerism has tainted the biggest celebratory day of its most popular religion, every social movement and, with Valentine’s Day, the idea of love. Human emotion is just another way to coax the masses into spending money. Everything we engage with as a society has been commodified. Valentine’s Day is another example of how materialistic and vapid our culture is.”

Frank Kidd | @FK446852315

“I think that Valentine’s Day is a consumer scheme but also a beautiful holiday. Almost every holiday is some type of consumer scheme, as most  require gifts, like Christmas and birthdays. However, I think that celebrating love is important, even if it’s greed-focused. Gifts are an important way to connect with loved ones.”

Kacey Buercklin | @0kacey1

“Valentine’s Day is a big consumer holiday when it comes to the flowers, the stuffed animals and the cards. All these things aside, it can be a fun day to spend with someone you love or even friends. It is also a good excuse to go get a nice dinner and eat candy.”

Lura Stabiler | @lstabiler3

“While Valentine’s Day is a great way for people in love to celebrate their relationships, the holiday itself is problematic. The premise of Valentine’s Day implies that you can only celebrate your relationship on special days of the year, rather than celebrating every day. From a producer standpoint, this is favorable because if people consolidate all of their celebrations into a single day, they will look for extravagant and expensive ways to celebrate, rather than small ways every day. This strategy constitutes more revenue for corporations because people are willing to spend more for special occasions. Monetizing the experience of love and relationships is a cruel tactic by producers to feed on the emotions of consumers.”

Mia Coco | @MiaMarieCoco1