Twice a year, Love Island navigates the relationship drama of a new load of single 20-somethings. The program has etched its way into being a landmark of British TV culture and its nine seasons have given its audience an insight into how young people navigate love and relationships.
Love Island has developed its own textbook set of phrases, and each year we see the contestants gradually melt into one another’s dialects to create a new set of phrases that are used throughout the season to signpost how they feel. Whenever the phrases my type on paper and getting the ick are used, it is near impossible to not imagine the holiday villa filled with neon beanbags and personalised water bottles. So, how important is the adoption of these emotional cues by Islanders throughout the season?
The short answer is, very. The most current season, on air now, can be used as an example. Throughout the series’ contestants have taken to the phrase ‘I can’t lie’ – being used over 10 times in certain episodes by the Islanders. This phrase is the new buffer brought out to give some inclination that one of them is going to release a home-truth or speak on something that they know could cause drama or an uncomfortable situation. Adopted most frequently amongst the men, the phrase is the new way to signpost honesty. A question that might follow this observation is, why do they need this buffer in the first place? For two people, the relationship is a line, and dishonesty is the sinker. Men's Health reports that men and their relationship with honesty is tested under the conditions of friendship, work expectations and romantic relationships. Once a lie is built, it is easy for this to spiral out of control and confuse somebody as they look for the lie within the lie. With the help of some slightly better diversity casting within the villa, the emotional signposting in the show is slowly helping to build a less toxic environment and giving the men of a villa a springboard to discuss their emotions candidly.
What follows within the season is the consistency of the saying, ‘it is what it is’. The adoption of this phrase typically makes its entrance when somebody is being treated badly or in a less than desirable way. To whip out the phrase it is what it is, seems to give the contestants some breathing space that stops them from being perceived as emotional or upset. Yet, the cue is becoming so well adopted, and so associated with an individual being put in a bad situation that has begun to become an indicator of when somebody does feel a heavy emotion towards something happening to them. The phrase offers a deflection from the emotions of the individual.
‘It is what it is’,or is it? We see men and women in the villa excuse their own behaviour by using this phrase to brush-off their wrongdoings and appear to their fellow contestants, and to themselves, that their actions were not that deep. This kind of tactic is something that most young people would recognise as gaslighting, but in the context of the villa things seem to get blurred. Their behaviour is often pacified because both sexes struggle to discuss their emotional boundaries and speak their own truths within a relationship setting. Mixed within this is the constant use of the phrase ‘no regrets’, a phrase typically adopted before doing something that can easily be predicted to be regrettable. More often than not, Islanders are using the fact they want no regrets to blur the boundaries of how far you can go with somebody else’s emotions in-tow.
Love Island has brought light to some major problems with the mental wellbeing of young people and the internalisation of emotions within an emotional setting. The kind of off-the-cuff language that is so easily adopted, can be used to describe what may be a more complex feeling or problem. For some young people, Love Island has proven itself a personal handbook for a pocket of adolescents on how to signpost their feelings and signal to others their emotional intentions. The impact this has on young people’s emotional literacy is fascinating. Now more than ever, the influence of the show stands firm in the competition of popular midweek telly, averaging close to 3 million viewers per episode. ITV have bagged the tv presenting powerhouse that is Maya Jama, who was given the seal of approval from the public as the right presenter for the show. Maya is 27, and her influence amongst the 20-somethings has stood the show in further stead to successfully encapsulate a significant segment of youth culture into television. While the behaviours of the Islanders continue to be chaotic and at times unhealthy, the power of the show to shape the modern discourse around love and relationships is hard to ignore.
Cited documents:
The Ringer, ‘Love Island Uk isn't a Reality Show. It’s a Lifestyle’, (2022).
Men's Health, ‘Why Do We Lie? Three Men Speak Candidly about Their Relationship With Honesty’, (2021).
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