Their images portray a picture-perfect archive of what our livescould be.
If youre single, youre probably somewhat jealous (even subconsciously).
And if youre in a relationship, youre most likely comparing your situation to the one on your screen.
Stocksy
Sure, that “Aw, theyre so cute” feeling sometimes creeps up in our throats.
As a society, were conditioned to become obsessed with things out of our scope.
So when we see the cracks in someone’s relationship, we start to do a double-take.What happened?
Did they delete all of their posts together?
Then, it turned into full-face kissing photos and appearances in YouTube videos.
“Part of my ‘job’ is sharing my life online,” I told myself.
After all, most couples I knew were doing it.
“We showed and shared everything,” quips influencerAlexa Loseyof a past romance.
We were two hopeless romantic creatives with way too many outlets to build the perfect digital love story."
If deleting everything looks petty but keeping everything up skews desperate, where are we supposed to land?
For me, erasing photos of my ex was the automatic solution.
But is there a road less traveled by regarding post-breakup internet etiquette?
To find out, I went straight to the source (my Instagram ask box).
I implored my peers to share how they handled their feeds after a breakup.
Emily chose to delete and archive everything, while Nicole had a very different take.
“When we broke up, I didn’t think twice about keeping or removing,” she notes.
“The photos and memories were staying, even if it hurt to look at them.
It was a part of me, so why hide it?
There’s no need to be ashamed of your journey no matter how bumpy it may have been.”
Final Thoughts
The consensus of my investigation was to do what feels right to you.
“It is hugely unnatural because we are systemically conditioned to care what other people think.
There are already so many things worth getting worked up about in this world.
Worrying about whether or not to delete digital traces of your past relationships is not one of them.
