The reason why you can’t stop looking at your ex’s Instagram

Well, isn’t this interesting…

We all do it. You come across an ex or an old fling on Instagram and within five minutes you’re back down to 2014 pictures of him at his aunt’s 50th birthday.

It happens. We’re naturally interested in the life of someone we used to date. Sometimes we’re just plain nosey and want to see if they’re dating someone new.

But then you have to stop yourself. You’re over him, right? WHY are you looking at his Instagram page? Why do you care?

Well, Dr. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a Professor Psychological and Brain Sciences, says that it’s quite a normal thing for us to do.

“I don’t think there was ever a time where we weren’t interested in our exes or who they’re dating,” she said.

“Facebook doesn’t help — it will show you what you were doing five years ago, and you didn’t even ask.”

Which yeah, true.

“You go back and look for clues from the past because you have things documented that you used to only have in your memory,” she added.

However, you need to be careful not to go too deep.

If you’re “constantly checking and thinking [about them] and using other people to track them because you don’t want to get caught – all of these things are signs that this is going a bit too far,” says Dr. Whitbourne.