Valentine’s Day is all about love, but how we experience
it can vary across generations. NT KURIOCITY asks millennials and Generation Z to share their views on how
they see love differently
RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT KURIOCITY
There’s often talk about how millennials and Generation Z (Gen Z) approach love, with differences in values, expectations, and expressions of romance. In addition, the idea of red and green flags in relationships has become a more common topic of discussion.
While these differences are interesting, it’s important to remember that love is a personal experience. Whether you’re a millennial or Gen Z, each person brings their own perspective to relationships.
Gen Z speak
The world of dating has shifted to social media. While millennials experienced meet-cutes, ours is the generation that ‘slides into someone’s DMs’. Where committing once meant exchanging promise rings, today it means going ‘Insta-official’. Where relationship standards were once set by romantic comedies, they’re now shaped by viral TikTok trends and influencer couples. Today, social media is the new playing field for romance.”
– Mansi Desai, Sanquelim
Love is about caring deeply for someone, wanting to see them happy, and supporting them when needed. It’s about trust, respect, and feeling at ease with each other. Love goes beyond emotions; it’s also about kindness and understanding. We value honest communication, emotional support, and growth, while also prioritising mental health and equality. Unlike millennials, we value flexibility and independence. Some green flags are kindness, honesty, and shared values, while red flags include controlling behaviour, lying, or disrespecting boundaries. A healthy relationship is one where both people grow together but still have space to be themselves.”
– Kamakshi Raikar, Mapusa
Love is the most beautiful feeling, and as a Gen Z, I see it as more than just butterflies. It’s in the little things: shared laughter, deep conversations, and quiet moments together. While millennial love might focus on grand gestures, for me, it’s the authenticity of simple moments—like a calm evening with coffee on the balcony, long walks, or cooking together. The green flags, or what I consider the essentials, are understanding, trust, love, respect, shared values, and support. True love is about growing together, achieving dreams, and being there through both the good and the tough times. It should feel like being exactly where you belong.
– Tanisha Samant, Porvorim
Being Gen Z, we don’t have the courage to love someone completely. We admire Shah Rukh Khan’s films and Karan Johar’s love sagas, but we lack the patience real relationships need. Gen Z measures love by the price of gifts—and the effort is judged the same way. During Valentine’s week, it’s about the biggest teddy bear or Ferrero Rocher. The beauty of love is lost in materialism—simple moments like sharing a cup of tea are seen as ‘bare minimum’ when they’re actually the most meaningful. As long as the flags feel warm and fuzzy, I’ll be colour blind to whether they’re red or green. When you truly love someone, there’s no going back. Love should be forever—cheesy, maybe, but I’m a Bollywood baby!
-Nidhi Naik, Ponda
“For Gen Z, love is about emotional connection, not just sticking around through tough times. Unlike millennials, we don’t stay in unhappy relationships for the sake of it. We value emotional intelligence, communication, and mutual effort. If someone can’t express their feelings or respect boundaries, it’s a major turn-off. We’ve grown up with more mental health discussions, so relationships are also about emotional safety. Independence is key for us, not a threat. We want love, but not at the cost of losing ourselves. Love for Gen Z is about balance—passion and peace. We want something real, not a guessing game. But situationships and terms like FWD make love feel more complicated. Green flags? Consistency, emotional maturity, mutual effort, and respect for boundaries. Red flags? Avoiding serious conversations, mixed signals, and betrayal—trust issues, manipulation, or cheating.”
– Saanvi Vazarkar, Porvorim
Millennial view
I believe love is based on trust and emotion, not just a materialistic display of affection. Respect and care are essential for building trust in any relationship. It feels like Gen Z is heavily influenced by social media, which often creates the wrong ideas. If someone only shows up when they need something or is always looking to gain, that’s a red flag. But when your partner understands, supports, and encourages you without being asked, that’s a green flag.”
– Bhaskar Bhandare, Margao
Born in 1997, I resonate more with millennial values. One thing I’ve noticed between millennials and Gen Z is the language around relationships. Gen Z uses terms like ‘situationship’, ‘benching’, and ‘breadcrumbing’, which can be confusing to millennials. To me, love has always been about real friendship and companionship. I was taught that strong relationships are built on companionship—finding someone who brings out the best in you, supports you through good and bad times, and truly gets you. A strong relationship is built on trust, emotional availability, and commitment. Both people need to put in the effort. Red flags like selfishness are deal breakers. Love should always be about mutual
respect and care.
– Atish Lolienkar, Margao
As a millennial, I believe in SRK’s ideology from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ -“Love is friendship.” To me, love is about being your partner’s best friend, just as my husband is to me. It’s about caring for each other, being there through thick and thin, learning and growing together, and exploring new things side by side. I value emotional and physical connection, good communication, mutual respect, trust, and understanding—unlike Gen Z, who often form connections more through social media. Green flags in a partner include honesty, respect for family elders, patience, and a willingness to share responsibilities. On the other hand, red flags include rudeness, ego, dishonesty, abusiveness, and a lack of emotional connection.”
– Pradnya Nerurkar, Margao
A relationship should be built on mutual trust, respect, kindness, open communication, and emotional maturity. A green flag would be if a person is kind towards those with a lower social standing, service-minded, and able to listen and hold space. A red flag would be someone who is impatient, lacks empathy, and has poor communication skills. I believe Gen Z is equally capable of having a successful relationship. They have more exposure and awareness than millennials.”
Akshada Godinho, Panaji
