'The moment I clicked 'unfriend,' I breathed a sigh of relief.'
. My story isn’t uncommon, and neither was the resulting anxiety I had associated with my romantic partner’s social media profiles. Several years and a marriage later, my own experience paired with regular accounts of virtual affairs had left an emotional scar. I thought I would feel better by avoiding the things my husband posted and limiting my viewing of his profile page. But with each software update, Facebook seemed to prioritize showing me everything he’d liked and commented on.
By extension, feeling left out of your significant other’s virtual life can make you question how much they really think of you. Like many of my fellow social media users, I found my husband and I experienced a handful of unnecessary virtual life quarrels. On the days I felt insecure, I found myself bringing up my absence from his online world, and I was terrified it was a sign that he was trying to hide something. Even when I wasn’t talking about it, I felt uncomfortable.
At first, I thought what she said was ridiculous. I’m his wife! Why the hell wouldn’t I be his friend on Facebook? But the longer I thought about it, the more I considered the question. Why did I have to be my husband’s Facebook friend? Why was I letting our social media presence impact our happy, secure home life?social media having a negative impact
So one day, when we were having a social media discussion via messenger, I just did it. My hand shook a little as it hovered over the friend button and I slowly scrolled down the options of “see first” and “unfollow.” But the moment I clicked “unfriend,” I breathed a sigh of relief.