There are some serious reasons to avoid social media after a break up
Breaking up is hard to do, and it's even harder to do when you see your ex-significant other liking girls' photos on Instagram or tagged in a rando's clubbing photos on Facebook.
Not that you'd be creeping or anything, but it's actually much better for you to avoid social media like the plague after a break up.
Doing this will help speed up the recovery of your broken heart and help you move on, Exaholics relationships expert and clinical psychologist Dr Cortney Warren told Bustle.
The psychologist told the online tome that being faced with information about your ex immediately after a breakup can negatively impact your ability to move on from the situation.
She also referenced the constant opportunity to 'check up' on your ex's life as being counter-productive to a healthy grievance period.
It can also lead you to seeing things you do NOT want to see, such as your ex moving on with someone new.
'If the relationship is over, the ease of communication only prolongs the frustration and hurt,' she told Bustle.
According to dating site eHarmony, there are a number of ways to avoid drawing out the upset period after a breakup by taking certain social media steps.
'Unfriend them on Facebook and stop following them on Twitter. Even though it may seem harsh to cut someone off so completely it is better in the long run because it will help you resist the temptation to cyber stalk them,' advises the site.
The dating site also reminds us not to use our own statuses or tweets as a means of revenge, in an attempt to make someone jealous or as a tool to hurt someone’s feelings.
So as much as you may want to make sly digs about a certain SOMEONE's lack of sexual prowess or emotional range, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat is not the place to have that rant.
The proper place for that is at your place over a bottle of vino with the girls, safe in the sanctity of best friendship, not publicly on the internet.
If y'all fight, break up, then make up 24/7, keep it off social media so you can keep what little dignity you got left
— Megan Mullen (@Megan_Mullen25) May 16, 2017
eHarmony also recommends avoiding social media when drunk, to avoid the temptation to send out an ill-advised booty call when every ounce of your gin-soaked being is telling you that that's a good idea.
Side note: We can assure you it is not a good idea.
So, if all else fails?
Just block them from your social media feeds.
If you can't see what they're up to then you are much less likely to think about them, and can focus on moving on and recovering from the break up.
It might be incredibly hard to resist the temptation to creep, but it will be much better in the long run.
