I was just talking to my Mum about this. She said that 20/25 years ago, when you broke up with someone, that was it. Unless you were still obviously connected, ( e.g. colleagues, neighbours), you had to make an active effort to find out what was going on in someone's life.
I now have so many friends, who often get upset when they tell me they can see their ex has moved on, ( and I've been just as guilty of this in the past, so am not judging), as they have the opportunity within a few clicks to check their ex's SM, ( often years after the break up), and can see and get upset by pictures of him with a new girlfriend, having holidays, babies, moving in with new girlfriend when he didn't want to with them. People can now obsess over the life of their ex's new girlfriend, taking screenshots of profile pics etc.
Likewise, it seems to stop people ever, ever being able to reinvent themselves or move on from their past. Old photos keep recirculating. An example was when I was at uni, three girls from the same school attended. Call them Olivia, Anna and Louise. Olivia had been part of the "nerd," group at school, but seemed to really flourish at uni. Anna and Louise were perhaps a little bitter about this, and would show everyone who would listen "old,," FB pictures of Olivia looking nerdy before she kind of reinvented herself, ( braces, glasses, old fashioned clothes etc).
Am I right i coming to the opinion that social media, ( e.g. Facebook, Instagram, twitter), is toxic as it never lets people move on with their lives.