The saying goes change is never easy, you fight to hold on and you fight to let go.

However, the one truth about the never-ending tug-of-war between one's sense of self and the tide of reality is: if you continue to look back, you will be unable to move forward.

In 2014, the pulse of social media beats ever stronger. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr course through the veins of our relationships like recyclable fuel.

Bonds and breaks betwixt friends, family and lovers are ticked off metronimacally with the sound of the second hand.

According to a recent study done by the Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., 74 percent of adults who have Internet access use social media sites and 89 percent of all young adults tap into online social hubs daily; additionally, 45 percent of Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 in serious relationships have commented the Internet had an impact on their relationships.

Both critics and admirers comment upon this overwhelming statistic, arguing the pros and cons of modern sociality as connected to the World Wide Web.

The opposing sides cry out, "When I was your age we actually went outside!" and "It enables us to connect on a level like never before!"

What no one seems to be debating over, curiously, is how social media affects our individual ability to dissociate ourselves from the possibly malevolent past.

Now, more than ever, people are able to torment themselves with a non-erasable scrapbook of time gone by.

Three clicks and you know exactly what your ex did without you yesterday, one or two more and you are barraged with the intimate details of a once-friend's new buddy. By having an instantaneous connection to the updates on the majority of people you've met in your life, you upset the natural flow of relationships.

Networking sites have an uncanny ability to make us forget friendships and romances are meant to come and go.

Break-ups and hang-ups become never-ending once one has an uninterruptible lifeline to another person.

For one to "move-on," a thoroughly complete and deliberate set of actions needs to be executed.

De-friending, blocking, un-following and deleting all need to be accomplished, a feat easier said than done.

Knowing what your ex, or ex-friend is up to 24/7 is a difficult temptation to refuse.

More importantly, letting go of the possibility of a reconnection with the other person when the chance is so accessible is Herculean.

The little green dot on the side of the chat box, informing you of the other person's availability, has been compared to Gatsby's green light after all.

Before, one would spend a few weeks wallowing around on the couch, eating a carton of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, and slowly skirting past the "what ifs" and the "good times" to emerge on the other side, free of the other person and ready to greet a new day. Now, you spend who knows how long sifting through pictures of the ex's photos, all of them curtailed to make his or her life seem as splendid as ever. The only way to regain your happiness, and peace of mind, is to let go of your social media ties to your once beloved.

What those who make social media part of their daily routine and world-connection need to realize is it is perfectly acceptable to give negative relationships the disconnect in order to welcome in the new, and inspiring ones.

Cassandra Jones

Intern

Parkland Press

Northwestern Press