“Ugh, he liked her picture again!” …said any girl in any sort of relationship EVER! Instagram, the most popular social media site out there, has destroyed any glimmer of hope that us twenty something’s hold on to for a real relationship in this day and age.
What would a world be like if Instagram didn’t exist? Well, in the realm of relationships, it would be a much more honest place to reside. Instagram ruins relationships for a number of reasons, but at the forefront, it gives people an instant plethora of perfectly Photoshopped and filtered people to choose from at their discretion. At any point in time you can scroll through thousands upon thousands of models, fitness freaks, celebrities, athletes and everyone in between until you find someone who tickles your fancy.
When you find THE ONE, your ultimate Instagram crush, because let’s be honest, at this point your significant other is the last thing on your mind, you can send them a direct message. Unlike actually approaching someone in person, the cowardly cheaters of this virtual world can hide behind the screens of their phones and offer their best pick up lines. And when they are turned down or ignored, which nine out of ten times they will be, they can delete the direct message and forget it ever happened. They can go back to their girlfriend after realizing that maybe, just maybe, their Instagram crush is a bit out of their league, so for now their relationship will have to do.
And then one day it happens. Your boyfriend, who is always so careful to always hide his tracks, slips up and forgets to delete the direct message he sent to that girl, offering his number to someone who is clearly not you. In that moment, your heart shatters and you know there is no going back. The person you’ve spent the better part of four years with isn’t who you thought he was. His true colors are showing, with the help of a Valencia filter, of course. He valued the girl with 13k followers more than he valued your relationship. And just like that, it’s over. As quickly as it started, the relationship you thought was sure to last forever is over.
If you are in a relationship and you value your significant other, my advice to you is to delete your Instagram. Sure, no one will be able to “like” the cute pictures of the two of you doing whatever it is couples are supposed to do, but you will spend more time actually enjoying those moments and less time trying to pose the perfect picture. All Instagram does to a relationship is damage: it distracts you from focusing on what is right in front of you because you’re too busy scrolling through carefully edited profiles of people you will never, ever meet. It gives you an unrealistic expectation of what your lover could, or should look like. The second you find yourself “liking” another person’s pictures, you are already too far gone.
Take my advice; appreciate the relationship you are in, love the person who loves you back, and get off of Instagram!
