Once you break up with someone, the very first thing you should do is cut all contact. When it comes to matters of the heart, out of sight, out of mind is the only way to move forward and heal. This doesn’t mean just deleting their number from your phone, but it also means you need to stop following them on Twitter and Instagram, and most importantly, you need to unfriend or block them on Facebook. If you don’t, you’re just going to become one of the many, the majority actually, who stalk their ex's Facebook page. Don’t you have better things to do with your time?
According to a study out of Ontario, 88 percent of people admitted to having “creeped” on their ex’s Facebook page so they could keep tabs on them. “Creeped” as in you’re being a total creep for doing it. The researchers found that not only do these people check in on their ex’s pages on a regular basis, but they overanalyze everything they see, spend time trying to figure out what messages that have been posted on their wall mean, they obsessively look at every photo their ex has been tagged in, and basically become amateur private investigators in the process ― or stalkers.
True story: Breaking up sucks. In my life, the worst pain I ever felt (aside from when my childhood dog passed away) was losing someone I had regarded as the love of my life. It was a devastation that I was sure I’d never recover from and even though it’s been almost four years and I’ve married an amazing man, the bits of that pain still reside, and I know it always will.
But what I learned after he and I broke up for good was that the only way to really move on and pick up the pieces of your life that they destroyed is to cut them from every corner of your existence. It can feel like a scary idea, because you don’t want to let go and want to hang on to them in some way, but having blocked my ex on all social media platforms, even on Gchat, was the best thing I could have ever done.
So while it might seem, at least right after a breakup, that remaining friends with them on Facebook is a good idea, it will just do more damage than good, especially once they start to move on. If you really love yourself, unfriend your ex on Facebook. Don’t be a creepster; be in the 12 percent who have better things to do with their time like falling in love with someone who actually deserves you.
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