Study: Being ‘Mature’ and Staying Facebook Friends With an Ex Is Bad for You
Unfriending your ex on Facebook is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you know it’ll be good for you. On the other hand, unfriending him can make you look petty and even more crucially, it means that you won’t be able to stalk him to see if he’s found a new boo.
But un-friending (or unfollowing) your ex isn’t immature. In fact, it’s actually pretty mature when you think about it. You’re accepting the fact that your ex isn’t a part of your life anymore rather than passive-aggressively liking his latest photo with some random.
But most of all, stalking your ex on Facebook could actually be stopping you from getting over them, according to a study.
The leader of the study, Dr. Tara C. Marshall, concluded that staying friends with an ex on social media led to “greater current distress over the breakup, more negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner, and lower personal growth.”
Have you ever had a dream about your ex and woke up feeling like you really missed them? That’s the same affect that happens when you are scrolling through Instagram and see a photo of your ex-bae. Out of sight, out of mind really works, and this study confirms it.
While you can tell yourself that you’re not going to stalk your ex’s page, you really won’t be able to help it if a photo of him pops up on your feed unless you block and/or unfriend him.
Sure, he may realize you blocked him and be surprised, but do you really care what your ex thinks about you? If you’re scared to unfriend your ex because you think he’ll make fun of you, realize that you shouldn’t even care what he thinks at all. Seriously, he’s totally irrelevant now. Whether you unfriend him or not, there’s still a good chance he’ll tell his next girlfriend that you were “crazy” because that’s what guys do.
Instead, worry about yourself. Unfriend that fucker and experience the same “higher personal growth” that those who unfriended their ex in the aforementioned study felt.
