A friend of mine linked me to this article from New York Magazine, which details the difficulty of moving on post-break up in the face of social media activity.

This is something we’re all of aware of on some level. If you’ve had a falling out with a partner, or even a friend, you still see them pop up on your social media feeds. You see their selfies on Instagram, the pictures their friends tag them in on Facebook, their tweets about going out, etc. Even though this person no longer has a constant physical presence in your life (or maybe they do, in which case the effect is amplified), you can still keep of track them. Whether you want to or not.

To reverse that equation, you may be so used to interacting with this person on social media that you accidentally continue to do so, even after the break up. After my last break-up, i found myself actively seeking out my ex’s activity on Facebook. I sent him Snapchats out of sheer habit. 

Erasing an ex is no simple task. Blocking has implications — do you want your ex to know you’re that agitated by their social media presence that you have to block them? Facebook gives you the option of unfollowing your ex’s posts, which is less of a statement than unfriending your ex altogether.

This article doesn’t go into the algorithms that, say, Facebook may use to determine just how close you are with your friends. If Facebook doesn’t know that you and your ex have broken up, it might continue to rank them as one of your “closer” friends.

How do you move on when you still have to make these complex decisions about your ex’s social media activity?