Ben and Lauren Happily Ever After - Discussion - *Sleuthing - Spoilers*

Sometimes I think too much scrutiny goes into some of this social media stuff and if it's me being generational or a fuddy daddy--it's ok by me. I hope I'm forgiven.
I posted a loving photo of my grandpoodle, Lester today on FB and stated I missed him so much. One of those FB reminders of what I was doing 4 yrs ago prompted me to do this. Otherwise, I might not have thought about it.
Then I thought --ooops did I do a bad me by not posting one of my grandson or kids?
Nope. I miss them, too. I just wasn't thinking of them at that time.
I still love them. I swear.

I think it's been proven time and time again in recent years that SM does tell the story if we just pay close enough attention. Not that one post or a lack of shows anything definite, but it can be one of the signs especially in hindsight. *edit* I'm not saying these two are in trouble, but if those candid pics were from a year ago and Lauren didn't even post one of Ben, it is a bit weird. It might not be weird for everyone but Lauren is fairly active on SM usually. JMO.

Lauren just posted one of their beautiful engagement pics on IG with the caption "1 year with you" with an engagement ring emoji. So there you go. Ben also just posted an ad for their freebie car with Lauren jumping up monkey hugging him. That's 3 social media posts from him today featuring Lauren. That's a lot for him. Lauren has now had 2 - one with a really nice message and the other featuring a recent engagement pic. I'm not sure what else people want. As far as posting old pics to celebrate where they were a year ago, that's how other couples also comemorated their anni's recently and in the past. Don't see the big deal there.

Here's the link to the picture
https://instagram.com/p/BM-ObvvAZDg/

Maybe I'm just a giant skeptic but I find it funny she posted this after it was talked about on here most of the day.

She posted one of their engagement photos on Instagram a little while ago. She has also gone a few periods being inactive on sm before (which for the record, she has sent 16 snap chats in the past week so I wouldn't even say she's being quiet on sm) and Ben quite regularly goes periods without using social media as well. There have been plenty of conversations on this forum referencing their periods of inactivity.

umngirl wrote:Maybe I'm just a giant skeptic but I find it funny she posted this after it was talked about on here most of the day.

It wasn't even just talked about here. Ppl were mentioning it to her on Twitter/IG too.

And this is why they should stay off social media. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

^^ Yep. She (they) can't win.

I don't think they can't win. They had plenty of fans and were winning just fine before all this started IMO. They were the darlings of the franchise and no one questioned their sm or longevity. 

IMO: her first post was not a great sign, and second post is a reaction to the fans. 

Also IMO: sm tells the story and always has if you pay attention to it. 

And another personal opinion: Josh and Andi, Ali and Rob also started with sm that seemed passive aggressive AND also had reactionary posts when fans questioned it. So the jury is out for me on them.

Alanna, of course they have plenty of fans, but they've had plenty of critism and questioning too, long before this show. That's the name of the game, of course. And doing this dumb show magnified the scrutiny, and that's on them and something they are dealing with now.

And I agree with you about social media. I didn't follw Josh and Andi like at all, but I don't doubt it. And I saw that pattern with Ali and Roberto.

That being said.... I saw nothing weird about what Lauren posted today. Her sister is her best friend. She had 2 IG's. The first was a tribute to her sis on her birthday where she ALSO includes a very loving message about Ben. So did Lauren's brother and her mom - they had similar posts about Mollie. That's the Bushnell MO. They always all post about each other on birthdays. They seem very close. Then later she showcased an engagement pic with Ben with another loving message. And if it was in reaction to people nagging on IG (which I personally don't think it was, but that's my opinion), well I get that too. I thought her first message  was more than enough. And yes, I do think in this case she's damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. Nature of the beast, I suppose. I personally could not handle all this scrutiny and I'm glad no one gives two poops when I post my annual anniversary post and throw up an old wedding pic on fb.

A reaction to the fans?!?!? Ok I went through all of the comments on her Instagram and there are three comments from people upset that she didn't post a picture with her and Ben, and two of the comments are from the same person, @mamahammer7895 who has zero pictures posted and 10 followers, and the other from @kristenbelli who has only one photo posted of 1D and is over a year old so is IMO obviously a troll account. The rest of the comments were people either congratulating them, criticisizing their show, or asking/ confused if the wedding was back on. I searched her twitter and searched both hers and Ben's names on twitter as well and couldn't find one tweet criticizing her for not including Ben in her photo. In fact, I was shocked that the majority of the tweets with their name searches were positive. After reading the posts on here all day, I assumed they were being taken to the cleaners on sm.