In the midst of all of this Noah Cyrus and Lil Xan drama, it seems like we are still having to address toxic relationships and there seems to be no sign of improvement.
Meeting someone new can be exciting. It can get even more exciting when you see the potential in this person to become someone that you want to experience life with. Regardless of who you are, every couple goes through some kind of cupcake phase. When we're going through this phase, it's easy to put on our rose colored glasses and ignore the things in our partner that in any other case would've been huge red flags to us and those around us.
This article is not being written to say that toxic relationships were nonexistent before social media blew up, but social media certainly hasn't helped.
Now more than ever, we can meet new people literally at the touch of a button. Sure, this serves us well in some cases, but in others, it can turn our worlds upside down. With things like Tinder and Bumble, it becomes so easy for us to create an image of a person in our heads that doesn't hold a candle to what the person is really like in person. Do you think catfishing was a thing in the 1950s? I don't think so.
Nevertheless, people are so quick to jump on board with these relationships because it gives them something to share with the world. This relationship has the potential to be yet another thing on our Instagram feeds to make their lives look even more desirable. Sure, cute pictures are great and all, but your followers have no idea what's going on behind that camera lens.
Manipulation is easier for people now than it has ever been. If you send a picture or a video of something private to the wrong person, it can take a whole new form and potentially ruin a lot of things.
Now more than ever, an Instagram post or a tweet can be the thing that is keeping someone in a relationship that they should've never gotten into.
So when does it stop? When do we start to decide that our safety and the safety of our friends is worth more than saving face on social media. Why does embarrassment take over our sense of right and wrong?
Don't hear me saying that it's easy to get out of a toxic relationship, trust me, been there, done that, currently writing an article on it. What I'm saying is, we have to decide to make the decision, on both ends of a relationship, to quit ruining our generation's idea of love.
Snapchats mean nothing when you're scared to raise your voice at your partner out of the fear that you might get hurt. An Instagram posts holds no value compared with your mental health.
Abuse is abuse. Blackmail is blackmail. This isn't your fault.
It's so easy for the people of our generation to say that it's just a post, but they have no idea what these posts are doing to people behind the scenes.
Friendships, relationships, partnerships are being ruined at the hand of our generation with our tiny computers that are capable of doing ANYTHING.
It's scary to be manipulated and made to feel like there's no way out. It's terrifying to think that something could happen to you at the hand of an accidental post on social media.
It doesn't matter how you're posed with that guy in that Instagram post. It doesn't matter that you put a smiley face in the tweet that you mentioned another girl in. None of these behaviors have any room to be justified.
Social media is powerful, but the only ones giving it power are the people using it, and those people are us.
Be kind to one another, spread love, forgive often, and remember, we all know your life isn't as perfect as your Instagram makes it seem. It's never too late to ask for help.
