I can’t be the only person whose seen a relationship crumble thanks to that digital-age devil social media. It’s there when I wake up and it’s there when I go to sleep – there’s no escaping it.
It’s as if it became that annoying third wheel in my relationship. Technology as a whole is slowly becoming the number one cause of break-ups and arguments in relationship’s today.
There is a difference between couples using social media to ruin their relationship and allowing it to be the dominate their relationship. From a guy liking a dozen pictures of girls in bikinis, to the girl uploading a picture of herself in a bikini, it’s tit for tat.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can have you going crazy about your other half. You will feel jealous and paranoid for no apparent reason. How many times has your girlfriend liked another guys photo and you’ve thought, ‘who is that?’, ‘does she know him?’, ‘is he better than me?’.
[pullquote align=”right”]’Ultimately it leaves you picking up your phone to take a picture of the flowers you bought your girlfriend rather than see the smile on her face when she receives them.'[/pullquote]
In reality you’re beating yourself up and it is probably just one of her mates, but that’s the emotion these sites bring out of us.
The arguments then start, after you over-think the situation and confront your partner. They will try to re-assure you, this is the part where you can ‘trust’ them or still feel paranoid which then transforms into them getting pissed off at you for not trusting them and from there it’s a downward spiral.
All of that after one ‘like’ of a photo; amazing huh?
But one thing links to another as if part of a chain. The initial trust is damaged, which leaves you waking up in the morning and checking your partner’s page, and this becomes a regular pattern. Soon you’ve exchanged your Metro newspaper on the train for your partner’s Twitter feed. You’re waiting for the next slip-up…
That isn’t right at all. Not only should you not have to check up on them, but all because she liked someones picture, it’s pretty pathetic. But I do it and you do it, let’s not kid ourselves.
It will make you feel as if they could be cheating on you, and besides how easy is it to become friends with someone online, message them and then delete the messages before your partner notices? I could do it within three seconds. You’re probably thinking ‘How does he know that?’…
Paranoia and jealousy can eat away at you. ‘They met me online, so they can meet someone else’. Go to one of the most busiest parts of London, say Oxford Street, and ask young people how they met their partners. I can almost guarantee the number one answer is social media. Scary, but most likely true.
Number one pet hate
Then you have the social ex. Your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend who will message you from time to time or like most of your photos, making your other half go absolutely crazy, but the trouble is how can you escape it?
Of course you can block people online but we all have that one psycho ex who is going to check your page or try and contact you off her/his best friend’s phone.
Like I said… no escaping.
Probably my number one pet hate is couples building a pretentious image of themselves online which is completely fake.
Scroll down your Instagram now and you’ll see pictures of couples saying ‘relationship goals or power couple’, when in reality that’s not the case. You can call this what you want but it’s just pure old-fashioned attention seeking.
They want you to see the picture-perfect image, making you want what they have. So you do the same and it goes around in a circle, which ultimately leaves you picking up your phone to take a picture of the flowers you bought your girlfriend rather than see the smile on her face when she receives them.
In a nutshell, don’t let social media control your relationship. Yes, you can upload pictures of you and your partner out and together, but learn to love and trust each other first. This should be the priority instead of waiting to see who your partners next follower will be.