Why I Quit Social Media When My Relationship Got Serious

I never had a problem with social media. I used them all — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. And though I wasn’t a religious user, I did enjoy posting pictures here and there or occasionally stalking my best friend’s latest crush. I didn’t see anything wrong with it… until I got in a serious relationship. Once I did, I decided to quit altogether — here’s why:

  1. I didn’t want my past to haunt me. Have you ever gone through your old Facebook posts or tweets or checked out what you used as your profile picture in 2008? For me, all you’d find are drunken tweets I thought were hilarious at the time and an awkward selfie of me and my zit-faced, high school boyfriend — not really something I want my mature, serious boyfriend to see.
  2. I didn’t want any surprise messages. I don’t know about you, but ex-boyfriends LOVE to pop up in my DMs. Thanks, but no thanks. In order to avoid all unwanted contact or my boyfriend seeing something that might make him suspicious or upset, I decided to not even put myself in that situation.
  3. I didn’t want to see other girls posting on my boyfriend’s page. Some of these girls have no boundaries or respect for other people’s relationships. And even though it may not be his fault, seeing random girls liking his posts or commenting on his page would piss me off. So instead of opening up the space for unnecessary fights, I figured it would be best to not even have the opportunity to look.
  4. Social media is full of unrealistic expectations. Trips to the Bahamas, adventures every weekend, shopping trips, perfect relationships… they’re all over Instagram. It seems awesome, but in my life, that’s not reality. That doesn’t mean my relationship isn’t great; it just means it looks different than what people post on social media, and there’s no reason to get jealous.
  5. I didn’t want to be glued to my phone. Social media is addicting. No matter how many times you check it, you keep going back for more. I didn’t want to be that girl who’s constantly glued to her phone. When I’m with my boyfriend, I want to be invested in our time together without any distractions.
  6. People like to give their unwanted opinions. For some reason, people view social media as the place to give you their opinions and not-so-helpful advice. Instead of having to sift through bitchy remarks or my grandma posting the most irrelevant comments on my posts, I decided that if someone really had something that important to tell me, they could text or call me about it.
  7. I didn’t want our relationship to be defined by social media. Remember back in middle school and high school when your relationship wasn’t serious until it was Facebook official? No thanks. I didn’t want people judging my relationship by how many pictures I post of me and my boyfriend on Instagram or by whether I tweet about the sweet thing he did for me that day. Yes, I love bragging about how awesome he is, but I didn’t want social media to be my outlet for expressing my love for him.
  8. It was right for us. After talking with my boyfriend about social media, we decided that both of us getting rid of all of it was the best thing for our relationship. For us, it just seemed to make the most sense. No more unnecessary fights about random people posting on our stuff or worrying about any unwanted contact from past relationships. We’re both social media free and we love it.
Mattie Gold is a lifestyle, health, and fitness freelance writer with a passion for making people laugh and understand their life better through her work. She is also passionate about chocolate. And taking long walks on a breezy day. And working out because being healthy is pretty cool.
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