Red flag or normal? How social media is making your relationships seem worse than they are

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Red flag or normal behaviour? How social media is making your relationships seem worse than they are - CNA Lifestyle
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Red flag or normal behaviour? How social media is making your relationships seem worse than they are
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Wellness
Red flag or normal behaviour? How social media is making your relationships seem worse than they are
From “divorce him” to “your parents are toxic”, social media is full of content that can sour how we see relationships. But 10-second reels rarely capture the full story, and instead can make normal relationship struggles feel like serious issues.
Social media may be encouraging you to cut ties with the people closest to you. (Photo: iStock/Simon 2579)
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Izza Haziqah Abdul Rahman
30 Apr 2026 07:53AM
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I was scrolling through Instagram the other day when I came across a video that caught my attention.
It showed a mum with a newborn strapped to her, rolling her eyes as she juggled bags of groceries, while her husband stood nearby, looking stressed on his phone. The text on the video read: “POV: You married a Google Maps idiot”.
I chuckled at the reel, which had over 3 million views. It reminded me of the times my husband and I struggled with Google Maps – or any seemingly simple app – especially in the newborn trenches.
The comments, however? They weren’t as kind.
The top comment, with over 20,000 likes, read: “Divorce him, babe.”
Another added: “I can’t stand when competent women marry stupid losers who can’t even use an app as easy as Google Maps. Wife, start using your brain and LEAVE.” Ouch.
The thing is, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve seen many similar reactions like this. A user posts a less-than-10-second reel about a moment in their relationship, and suddenly, thousands of people weigh in with the same negative conclusion.
And it’s not just in the comments, it’s in the content itself. I see the same message and heavy terms appear across videos about parents, siblings, even lifelong friends: This is why they're bad or "toxic", these are "narcissistic" signs you need to look out for, this is how your parents are "abusing" you. Avoid them, leave them, cut them off.
While these portrayals can help people in genuinely abusive situations feel seen and validated, they can have a very different effect on someone who is simply having a bad day.
Instead of offering perspective, social media can amplify those negative feelings, making relationships seem worse, more broken, and more final than they actually are.
At its most extreme, social media doesn’t just reflect how we feel about our relationships, it can even nudge us towards walking away from them, often before we’ve fully worked through them in our own lives.
HOW THE ALGORITHM BRINGS NEGATIVITY INTO YOUR FEED
Associate Professor Patrick Williams, who teaches sociology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and specialises in digital media and online youth subcultures, sheds some light on how this happens.
The first thing to take note of is the nature of social media itself.
“On one hand, social media brings people together, but on the other, it can be very 'Me'-oriented,” Assoc Prof Williams said. “You have a lot of choice on the platforms. You can participate in whatever you want, and whatever you don’t want, you just ignore or unfollow. It centres you, your feelings, reactions, and interests.”
When coupled with how algorithms work – sorting through massive amounts of content to prioritise what keeps users engaged – social media becomes a highly personalised feed that continuously adapts to you, he added.
“If you see content that you can relate to, you may feel validated,” he said. “Validation feels good, so you engage more, whether by liking the post or simply spending more time on it. That engagement and time then contribute to the algorith…

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