Social media is a part of our daily lives now, and there is no denying it. I know when I'm bored I start scrolling through Facebook or Instagram just to have something to do. I personally love social media, and it's because I love to connect with people on a daily basis that I wouldn't normally be able to do without it. Really, social media can be an awesome thing, but it also has its downfalls. Too often I see people who put it before anything else, and they use it as a place to air all of their dirty laundry. You have the freedom to post anything you want, but it can turn from good to bad very quickly if you involve it in everything you do, including your relationship. Relationships are something that shouldn't revolve around what your significant other says or does on social media.

When you post all of the not so pretty things on social media, or every detail about an argument, you are inviting your entire friend list into that argument. With that, you open up a floodgate of unwelcomed opinions. Your friends and family are probably coming from a place of love, but how can you resolve anything on your own if you have outside opinions telling you what to do? It's hard to keep the difficult aspects of life private sometimes, and I get that, but social media isn't the place for every bad detail of your relationship. I understand that relationships aren't always easy, and they aren't always picture perfect, but you should work that out with your partner. If you put energy into making your relationship the best it can be, you won't have time to post negative things to social media.

When you are constantly plugged into your phone, you lose focus on your relationship. The new normal is sitting across from a dinner table buried in each other's phones. Even if you aren't posting to social media about your relationship, you can still hinder it by giving it more time than you do your partner. Time is so precious and giving it away to scroll through Instagram, instead of spending time with your partner, is just sad. We have to remember that social media will always be around, but the person you love who is sitting in front of you may not be.

There is a time and a place for everything. When you get engaged please show off that gorgeous ring on Facebook! That's a happy time, and your closest friends and family will want to know every detail. When you have a family, post those cute little videos of your baby walking for the first time. Those are times to be celebrated! Those are just glimpses into the day to day life you live, and you aren't hindering your relationship by doing that.

I hope that you realize how precious it is to love and be loved, and I also hope you don't let social media ruin that good thing for you. Back in the day, before social media, people didn't have a way to post all of the things about their relationship. If there was an argument, then they worked it out by communicating with each other, not by posting it to Facebook. I understand it can be tough to not get too wrapped up in all of the different platforms made available to us, but your personal relationships are far more important. I am guilty of this too, and I have had to take a step back, and realize that I was neglecting my relationship because I was too busy with my phone. It isn't easy to do, but I hope that you can also take a step back and really enjoy the time you have with the people around you. The time you spend with your loved ones is what life is really about, anyway.