Social media is mostly smoke and mirrors and this can affect your romantic relationship (Image: Shutterstock)

Social media is a fun and convenient way to keep up with other people, but do you know the negative impact it may have on your relationship? Social media usage is one of the most popular activities online with over 2 billion people actively using social media worldwide.

When it comes to your love life, social media usage may be a regular part of your routine but you have to be aware that it is not the real world. It’s mostly smoke and mirrors because the majority of people only post the best parts of their lives and this can affect your romantic relationship. Below, we discuss four ways that social media is killing your relationship.

 Sharing everything from when you both wake up, to what you eat, to where you go only opens a can of worms in your relationship (Image: Shutterstock)
Oversharing

You would probably never mount a giant flat-screen TV with pictures and videos of you and your partner, at the entrance of your home, for people passing by to view. Social media is really not that different from the giant TV unless you’ve placed privacy restrictions on your account.

Sharing everything from when you both wake up, to what you eat, to where you go only opens a can of worms in your relationship. It complicates the dynamics of your union because a large part of your life has to be altered for online consumption, and most people don’t show the not-so-pretty parts of their lives. Doing this will make your relationship feel like one big stage performance, and even performers get tired.

 Excessive social media usage draws us away from interpersonal connections with our loved ones (Image: Shutterstock)
Comparison

Social media posts are simply a tiny glimpse of a bigger picture. “#CoupleGoals” is unrealistic because we generally upload only what we want people to see. You don’t know if the pair had a huge fight right after they took the last of one hundred pictures before choosing the best one to post.

No relationship is perfect, as cliché as that sounds. A picture, vlog or Instagram boomerang is not an entire relationship. Therefore, comparing your relationship to these illusions of perfection makes you less appreciative of the great things you’ve already got going on in your relationship.

 Seeing your partner like or comment on a post of the opposite sex can rouse insecurity? (Image: Shutterstock)
Less quality time

Have you ever seen a couple on a date with both of their heads bowed down, staring at their phone? In this day and age, we are constantly connected with each other online more than we are offline.

We want to know who got engaged, who graduated and whose puppy just died. That’s great and all but excessive social media usage draws us away from interpersonal connections with our loved ones. Put your phones away and talk to each other!

Insecurity

Seeing your partner like or comment on a post of the opposite sex can rouse insecurity. Such feedback on a post may simply be an appreciation for what they see, most likely not meaning that they want to jump in bed with that person.

However, some people can be inconsiderate of their partner’s feelings and leave disrespectful comments that insinuate attraction and interest, this is where the exception lays. There is also the “sliding into the DMs” joke that some people in relationships sadly do. If your partner just leaves an innocent like or comment, there is very little to fret about. 

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