As we get older, we change. It’s only natural. And sometimes, when we change, our friends and acquaintances don’t change with us. So, in the natural ebb and flow of life, it’s normal to grow apart and lose touch with people. But social media doesn’t always allow us to do that. Is that a problem?

Who you are has something to do with you, and it also has something to do with your social circle. You’ve probably heard the saying: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

But what happens when you continue to spend time with the same people, year after year? If you all move in the same direction and change in the same way, that’s great. But more often than not, people evolve, shift and grow apart, not together.

And as your dreams, values and goals start to sharpen, you become more specific and you don’t always match your former social circle. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s normal. And in most cases, we’re allowed to move on and create new social networks for ourselves.

But with social media platforms like Facebook, it’s increasingly becoming more difficult to grow apart and lose touch with people. Why? With Facebook, you are forever connected to your friends.

And even though we naturally stop being friends with people in real life, it’s difficult to “unfriend” people on Facebook because it can be taken the wrong way.

Another problem that Facebook presents is that when you change and grow, it can be a vulnerable and scary thing to share your new self online. So, to avoid rejection and to keep the “likes” coming, you may hide or censor your ever-changing self just to maintain these Facebook forever friends.

It’s perfectly normal to lose touch and grow apart, but perhaps prevalent social media platforms prevent us from doing that.