I see you’re in a toxic relationship. Thank you for sharing.
Public display of affection is one thing, but public display of your personal issues is an entirely different story. When people post their relationship woes for the social networking world to see, it often creates irate feelings toward the parties involved. It definitely does not help the situation at hand.
We’ve all been there — angry, frustrated, vengeful or what have you. Rational behavior is thrown out the window of reality, and delusion sets in. There are many reasons for someone to publish their emotions and love life drama over the web, but essentially, it’s for attention. Whether it’s to draw the focus of the partner or just a pity party, everyone’s just looking for some notifications.
Honestly, no one in their right mind would want everyone to know his or her relationship is complicated. Why is that even an option as a relationship status? Oh, right, so when you change it, you can be swarmed with flocks of questions and artificial sympathy from people you don’t even talk to.
If you’re really that desperate to exploit your emotions, might I recommend a journal? If it’s advice you need, a website can’t help you.
Every person’s news feed that sees a daily relationship status change from the same couple has legitimate credibility to advise them to break up. We’re all friends with those people who literally break up and get back together publicly every other day. Besides the actual relationship status, the personal posts of song lyrics, cliché quotes and the rare — but always fun — arguments clearly signalize a significant issue.
It becomes apparent in these particular instances that these people are involved in, at the very least, a cyclic and emotionally abusive relationship. An abusive cycle is generally characterized by three stages including the tension-building, explosion and honeymoon phases, based on the concept by psychologist Dr. Lenore Walker.
It’s relatively self-explanatory, but the honeymoon phase is what makes these types of relationships addictive. The comfort of resolution and calmness after a fight keeps people coming back for more. This generally isn’t a major concern unless it becomes a cycle.
Bickering and arguments become more frequent, and the couple begins fighting just to make up.
When everyone you’ve ever met can see this and you can’t, there’s a problem. It’s also annoying for us innocent bystanders to watch every week. I know what you’re thinking, and I can already hear the attitude. “If you hate it so much, delete the people doing post.”
 
Gabie Bacques is a 21-year-old animal science senior from Mandeville. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_Gbacques.
 
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Contact Gabie Bacques at [email protected]