Keeping Your Ex out of Your Online Life

Maybe you've stalked your ex's Facebook page from time to time looking for evidence of a new girlfriend or to see how much time he spends partying with his friends. Perhaps you've also gone through your Instagram pictures to try and relive those old memories of when you were together. Or maybe you've wanted all evidence of him to just disappear, but pictures and comments still keep cropping up unexpectedly when you're reading Facebook posts from your friends or updating your status.

Break-ups are hard, but getting over your ex emotionally and physically is now just one part of the equation. Thanks to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we also have to think about how to erase those memories from our digital history.

There are a few things you can do to be more proactive in letting go of your ex's social media presence. It just takes some tools and a lot of courage. And of course a good app to help you actually do it. (There's an app for anything, right?)

An app called Killswitch allows you to identify your ex in your lineup of Facebook friends when you download it. Instead of you doing the emotional dirty work, the app sifts through your timeline history and relevant posts and deletes them. So, mission accomplished with no regrets. (And if you happen to get back together, the app also has a reversal mechanism which saves those files in one location.)

You can also unfriend him. This will keep him out of your Facebook interactions going forward, but you still might need to clear him out of your history. Just stay clear of your timeline and delete the pictures that you've posted - delete the items you have control over.

Refrain from mentioning him online. I know it's tempting to list all of the things he said or did that were hurtful, or share with your friends what a player he was, but don't. Your ex isn't up for a public discussion/ dissection over Facebook. For one thing, this won't help you move on - it will only convince you to spend way more time thinking about him than you should.

One last helpful approach is to take a leave from Facebook for a few weeks, until you feel more centered after a break-up. While it might be difficult to stop posting or reading about your friends, keeping your Facebook account at bay will also prevent you from stalking your ex's page. If you don't want to go cold turkey, then find another social media space that he doesn't use, like Pinterest. There are plenty of options out there if you want to get distracted.