Is This Petty? Blocking Your Ex On Social Media After A Breakup

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In “Hella Disrespectful,” episode seven of Season 2 of Insecure, Issa was told by Tiffany that her ex, Lawrence, was going to be attending a birthday dinner she was holding in honor of her husband, Derek. Issa says that she’s fine with him coming to the party when she’s really not (she didn’t really have a choice), and proceeds to try and look him up on Facebook to know his whereabouts. When she attempts to, that’s when she finds out that she’s been blocked. It’s a move by Lawrence that not only draws the ire of Issa, but also one of her usual bathroom mirror raps.

When she finally has her awkward encounter with Lawrence (and short-lived boo Aparna) at the birthday dinner and storms out, she has it out with him about his decision to block her. Honestly, he had good reason: He didn’t want to see anymore pictures of her canoodling with the guy she cheated on him with.

I thought about that episode while talking to a friend about the recent news of singer The Weekend and girlfriend Selena Gomez breaking up. Us Weekly reported that soon after the news broke that the couple of 10 months split, the “Starboy” singer blocked Gomez’s family members, friends, her team, and fan accounts dedicated to the couple. He also deleted a majority of photos he had of her on his accounts. And while we speculated about whether he was big mad or little mad, we could both agree that based on the fact that she’d already been seen out with her ex, Justin Bieber, he had the right to block whomever he wanted to.

However, as was the case for Issa, when we’re on the receiving end of being blocked, it doesn’t feel very good. We bemoan the way we’ve been treated and call the behavior of our exes childish and petty. But when it comes to blocking someone after a breakup, is it really?

One man asked that question, and in fact, wondered if such a decision was aggressive when he shared his concerns about blocking his ex: