This new Instagram feature could ruin friendships

Did you Instagram it! 

Social media has changed the way we travel, eat, communicate and the list is endless. Our life is through the lens, rather than face to face, and there is a lot of focus on how others perceive our lives. Instagram has introduced a new 'follows you' feature that instantly tells you when a person has unfollowed you. It notifies every time someone unfollows you. Now, you can glance at a person's bio to know if they are following you. This is indeed a bad news for those looking to block friends without them knowing. So, each time you try to block a friend to keep those annoying posts at bay, you may just lose the friend. This simply adds to the plethora of reasons why Instagram is ruining your friendships.

Me-focused

We are obsessed with telling our own stories and making them look exciting that we forget to give adequate attention to stories of others. To be a good friend you need to be a good listener, after all. So, are you listening? 

Didn't you see it on Instagram!

From engagement to pregnancy, people make the biggest announcements via social networks. Why would we take the efforts to make a call to a best friend and tell about our achievement or a significant announcement, when we can just post it online? And, dare you miss it! If you do, you aren't a good friend.

More virtual, less real

The long list of friends can increase your likes, views and probably your virtual social quotient. But, from those odd 1000 people, how many can you really ‘call’. In-depth conversations with friends have begun to lose essence, and things are simply superficial. 

Wrong sense of what’s going on in your friend’s life

Social media can be tricky. Do not wash your dirty linen in public or you will be judged. And, in the bid to show everything is normal, you may give a false sense of what’s going on in your life to your friends. On the other hand, you may have casually liked or shared an emotional post, and your social circuit already believes you are going through heartbreak.  

Less to say in person

So, everything is documented on your Instagram account, what’s left to talk about? Gone are the days of 'let's meet to make a plan'!

Heard about spending quality time?

And, you do make a plan to meet your friends; there is a significant amount of time consumed by your smartphone. You are telling the world what a happy bunch you are, but is it really time well spent?