The Virtual Breakup Trail

Our social media trails are an incredibly intimate digital diary that we allow the entire world to click through. So it’s not surprising that for many of us dating has become performance art, and both our closest friends and our most casual acquaintances have a front row seat. This is particularly true for millennials like me who’ve grown up with the idea of having an audience of friends and supporters and expecting instant and constant feedback — whether it’s coming from our mother or a person we once knew at summer camp. It’s part of our DNA. But it’s hard not to wonder whether that craving for approval from all those far-flung friends is changing the way we bond and interact with the people we love.

Hairpin pal Callie Schweitzer is over on Time today taking on the horror show that is the “My Exes Live In Texts” reality, and also drops in a chilling consideration for the future: “t won’t be long before we have a presidential candidate whose high school Facebook photos are held against him or her.” Incredible that after so much searching, scientists still haven’t found the “burn down the internet” lever yet. [TIME]