The Performance Art Of Breaking Up

Look, we never thought A-Rod would be the model of evolved adulthood, but here we are...

- Mia Mercado

When my boyfriend became my ex-boyfriend, I did not acknowledge our break-up online. This was fairly easy to do given that so little of our relationship had been posted for public consumption. His mom had tagged me in some pictures on Facebook; I think I Tweeted a funny thing he had said a few times. It's not that we were one of those couples who took pride in being intentionally offline. It just never occurred to me to document our life together.

Maybe you are thinking that sounds like a red flag. But this was seven years ago, just before the dawn of there being essentially no choice but to exist almost entirely on your phone. And besides, for the majority of our relationship, I had a fake BlackBerry, which was incapable of doing much more than texting. Also, I did not yet know about micro-influencing as a viable career path.

Anyway, when the relationship was over, he moved out and I began to post more about myself. I shared about my job and my sister. And every so often, I'd nod to my newly single status: Tinder is so bad! Did I mention I am on Tinder? I uploaded pics of my globe-trotting adventures to places like Des Moines so people would know I was getting out there'. Navigating my raw singleness on social media certainly didn't feel natural, but I was resigned to a certain set of facts: our lives were moving online, so our break-ups had to too.