A few weeks back, I was on twitter, and I clicked on the profile of a person I thought I was friends with. Someone who I had shared great memories with; someone who I thought would be in my life forever. When I clicked on their profile, I saw I had been blocked. Wait, what? What did I do to this person? I became curious. I went to Facebook and saw that this friend had deleted me from their friends list. There was no reason for all of this. I honestly had no clue what I did to have someone not want to see anything I post, or to ever want to check in with me.

Are you mad at a girl because she is now dating your ex-boyfriend? You block her so she cannot see what you post, as if what you post will really hurt someone you do not know. Are you mad at your friend? You delete and block her number. What is the satisfaction in doing this? That is the one thing I do not understand about blocking. I will admit, I have blocked, deleted, and unfollowed people on social media in an attempt to get rid of poisonous feelings. But what happens when we block out all of our problems and our feelings? Nothing. We get nothing. You’re still thinking about what that girl is doing or who she is hanging out with. You are still wondering about when that boy starts school, so that maybe you can see him one more time before you leave and make amends.

This whole “blocking” thing does nothing but make life harder. We seem to think that not seeing a tweet or a Facebook post will help us heal from something that has hurt us. It’s not the post that is hurting you, it is the actual situation, which is happening whether you see it on social media or not. You still have that feeling in your gut, or that heartbreak, which is the hardest part.

This generation has a problem, in general, with blocking out whatever we do not want to handle. I know it is not only us, but technology has made this problem so much more prominent. Instead of blocking what needs to be handled, why don’t we just handle it? Why don’t we manage the situation and make it better?

Step up and be the bigger person. When there is a conflict or a problem, it is so much easier to talk and discuss rather than be hostile and block. Communication is key to so many aspects of life; one of them being working things out with people.

So instead of blocking or talking badly about your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend because they are dating someone new, why don’t you let them know you are happy that they are happy. Niceness hits people. People wonder why you are not mad or upset about something you should be upset about. It gives you such a great feeling, knowing you are being the bigger person in a situation. You don’t have to deal with that feeling of maybe seeing them around and it being awkward or weird. You don’t have to act fake towards someone because you are still upset they never told you why they did not want to be your friend anymore.

Problems start to slowly go away when you become happy and supportive. It might be hard to not want to block out the problems, but it will help so much in the long run. Next time, instead of clicking block, maybe try clicking poke.