Before text messaging, couples had to write letters to each other, meet in person or call on a landline to talk. But now, we navigate the majority of our relationships and socialization through social media platforms and other apps on our smartphones. Being able to send a message across the world in a matter of seconds is incredible, but it can also make real social interaction more difficult, especially when you’re famous.
Noah Cyrus and rapper Lil Xan recently very dramatically ended their relationship after only a month of dating in the public eye. The entire breakup played out on social media through Instagram lives and stories in which the two told fans their own interpretation of what happened. These posts included tears, accusations of a staged relationship, cheating rumors and Charlie Puth memes. Even some of the other members of Noah’s famous family were drug into the drama, such as her mother. Fans following the “he said, she said” battle between the two now exes have been asking many questions, like what happened to the bong Lil Xan gave Billy Ray Cyrus (Noah’s famous dad) for his birthday, and will the two ever actually talk one on one?
This isn’t the first time social media and smartphones have played a major role in making a difficult situation even messier. For years celebrities have been battling with tabloids and pop culture news outlets to keep details of their relationships, splits and scandals private. But now that the power to share is in their own hands, and everyone else’s, we see more and more people taking the initiative to release statements through their own accounts.
People are posting screenshots of conversations to bash and expose their enemies in front of the biggest audience possible, the whole world. Social media plays a big role in everyone’s day to day schedule. People are becoming more and more dependent on technology with each new generation, and that means more screen time and less real social interaction.
In a study done by Monica Anderson and Jingjing Jiang of the Pew Research Center for Internet and Technology, 45 percent of teenagers surveyed said they are online almost constantly and 44 percent said they check their social media multiple times a day. Checking social media has become a habit, it’s the first thing some people do when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they do before bed. This obsession with the social media universe has created a world in which privacy is hard to obtain.
In the same study, 24 percent of teenagers surveyed said that social media has a negative effect on people their age, which the main reasons for that are cyberbullying, spreading of rumors, lack of personal relationships and an unrealistic view of other people’s lives. The lack of personal relationships and an unrealistic view of other’s lives can be very stressful on a relationship. People typically only post couple photos that appear happy of their significant other on social media, we only see the mess during or after the breakup. Noah Cyrus and Lil Xan posted many pics of them cozied up together on red carpets or out on dates, there was no indication of any trouble in paradise prior to their explosive public breakup.
Social media gives us the opportunity to express ourselves and share our lives with the world, but it is also a place where our view of what is real becomes skewed. More often than not what you see on Instagram or Twitter is not what you’re getting, remember that social media posts and relationships are quite similar in one regard, the best ones don’t need to be filtered.