Turning up on our radar earlier this year as the ‘first gay couple’ to be signed to a modelling agency, in the past six months Jarlos – made up of John Tuite and Carlos Santolalla – have seen their Instagram following double. Regularly posting under the joint accont @jarlos420, it’s safe to say their fandom has been boosted by a healthy dose of #relationshipgoal images of themselves together; smoking weed, kissing, wearing matching outfits. 

Underneath the veneer of social media there’s another story altogether, one that’s been gaining increasing traction over the past week as ex-model Essena O’Neill called BS on her virtual ‘reality’ by singling out the posts she’d been paid for, received goods for or painstakingly spent endless #selfies trying to set up.

The alternative side to the argument is that social media is a place for empowerment, as Instagram babe Dounia will (and did) tell you. It acts as a space to dismantle the unattainable aspirations that we’re spoon fed on the daily through mediums like advertising.

For Jarlos, it’s clear that while social media has given them a sturdy foundation for their careers it’s also the constant maintenance of their public image and their love through the lens of Instagram that’s become exhausting. Earlier this year, they hit peak social fatigue. And while images of the couple kept refreshing our feeds, Santolalla and John were far from the fantasy – in fact they were in different cities. While we’re reassured that the couple are still madly in love, they’ve had time to reflect on such issues by channeling these concerns into the short film titled “Goals” – which we premiere here – Santolalla explains below;

“Few people express sadness or hopelessness in their posts, effectively disguising any real emotion or feelings from their internet persona. You become a click, a like, a comment” – Carlos Santolalla

“John and I have been in a deep, passionate love for four years, but we are human as well and a lot of times we don't get along. During this period of when the film was made, things were especially not good, and I went out a lot to avoid anything 'Jarlos' related – which was hard when you're so publicly intertwined with each other and the city you live in. I realised that I can go as far away as possible and I couldn't stop thinking of John, the person I love, or check our Instagram almost hourly.

Our Instagram is awesome and social media really works when you can use it to change your life around, but few people express sadness or hopelessness in their posts, effectively disguising any real emotion or feelings from their internet persona. You become a click, a like, a comment, and it's hard to avoid because it's everywhere and on everyone at all times. Sometimes all we thought about was giving hope to younger kids who didn't have gay people to look up to growing up, like ourselves, while also becoming the worst part of ourselves with each other, as lovers.

Sharing an Instagram with my boyfriend is usually really rewarding, but by using it to narrate our own love story we have inadvertently mythologised ourselves and omitted many of the challenging realities of being in a relationship. I made ‘Goals’ to pay tribute to the struggle of loving someone – to be vulnerable and show the Internet that not even their #relationshipgoals are effortlessly perfect together all the time.”