"I unfriended my husband on social media and this is how my life changed"

Who knew social media would influence our lives so much and impact the way we feel about ourselves. In fact, social media has also become a reason for conflicts between couples, and we were one such couple. Six months after marriage, I had a nagging fear that one day we will have to bear the brunt of our social media activities. And I wasn’t wrong.

It’s true that social media helps keep people connected but in our case, it was just the opposite. My husband and I were friends on social media and every day I used to get notifications about his activities. Whenever there was an office outing or a dinner, there were pictures that told a story about the good time he was having without me. Although I hate to admit it, but it made me feel left out.

Moreover, social media is also a platform where people unabashedly shared sappy updates about their love life or wrote unapologetic long messages on birthdays telling the world how much they loved their partner. You cannot help but end up comparing your life with them. There was an instance when I once joked about how my husband never writes anything sweet about our life or wish me on birthdays on Facebook. And the look on his face the moment I said that made me regret my words and realised how insensitive I was.

Thanks to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, every time we reached home after a hectic day in the office, we had nothing to talk about. Because whatever happened in the day, it was all there on social media updates. We knew what we had for lunch or where we went out with friends without even telling each other. And that was a scary situation!

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 25 per cent of mobile phone owners in a marriage or partnership have felt their spouse or partner was distracted by their phones when they were together. And almost 10 per cent of Internet users who are married or have partners say that social media had a “major impact” on their relationship. Although these studies were conducted in the US, I was living a similar life in India.

After weighing the pros and cons, I finally decided to unfriend my husband on social media. My husband understood why I was doing this and agreed to it wholeheartedly. The following weeks had some new experiences and a few surprises!

As soon as I unfriended my husband on social media, I almost regretted the decision. I missed seeing his updates and wondered what he must have done the whole day. I almost had the urge to call him and ask about it. And when I actually called him, I realised how wonderful it felt talking about the nitty gritty of life. When we were connected on social media we hardly talked because we were totally depended on messages and texts.

Slowly, we started enjoying the afterlife of not being friends on social media. We now have more things to talk about, we were less concerned about what other people did on social media and any insecurities we had because of our online activities (I once had a fight with him after his ex-girlfriend shared an old photo mentioning him on the post) were no longer there. It was indeed a good decision and I would urge couples to try it at least once.

-By Priyanka S.

(All images used here are representational)