There's no denying that going through the break down of a long-term relationship is one of the hardest things a person can go through - but is there a way to see when the cracks started to show?
Well, according to a man on Reddit, these cracks can be seen through something as simple as text messages.
In this day and age, communicating via text (or iMessage, Instagram DM... or even Snapchat for the Gen Zers) is the norm for the majority of couples.
Advert
Whether that's a long distance relationship keeping the spark alive via daily texts, or settled down couples deciding - or arguing over - what they fancy for dinner while at work; texting with your other half is a vital form of communication.
But one poster on Reddit has managed to use his old text messages with his ex-partner to identify when the cracks began to show in the lead up to their break up.
The relationship sadly came to an end after five years which, I'm sure many of us can agree, is a pretty substantial length of time.
Advert
After diving into five years’ worth of correspondence, the Reddit user found the most popular words used in their messages over the years and presented the data in word cloud form, year by year.
Year One: The honeymoon phase
The first image, shared to the popular DataIsBeautiful thread, was titled ‘Year 1: We met online’.
Some of the most common words used in the former couple’s texts included ‘haha, ‘good’, ‘food’, ‘weekend’ and ‘yeah’.
Year Two: Exciting milestones
The second year of correspondence was captioned ‘Year 2: we moved in together’ and again featured the words ‘good’ and ‘haha’.
Advert
Other stand-out words that were frequently shared in texts included the affectionate term ‘baby’, as well as ‘work’ and ‘morning’.
Year Three: A blissful relationship
The third image featured similar phrases, as well as the addition of ‘love’, ‘lunch’, ‘pizza’ and ‘Amazon’. Interestingly, the third year was captioned ‘Bliss’ so we can assume the pair were enjoying spending time with each other.
Year Four: An engagement
The Redditor and his ex seemed to be in a good place by their fourth year as they had decided to get married.
Advert
Affectionate pet names such as ‘bub’ began to filter through, as well as the words ‘movie’, ‘dinner’, and various flowery adjectives such as ‘amazing’.
Year Five: A sudden U-turn
Things seemingly took a dramatic turn in the fifth and final year of their relationship, with the Reddit user captioning the fifth slide ‘Year 5: She demanded a third move, then she kicked me out'.
Advert
Unfortunately, it’s not totally clear in the original post what went down between the two of them because the most-used words in the fifth year still included ‘okay’, ‘good’, and ‘hopefully’.
Year Six: An attempt at reconciliation
After the couple’s split, there was another word cloud entitled: 'Year 6: We tried to resolve things, then catastrophe struck'.
This sixth year frequently featured words such as 'want', 'know', 'just', 'sure', 'yeah', 'think' and 'okay'.
The final slide saw the Reddit user compiling the pair’s most used words across their relationship. Here we can see the words they texted to each other during their dating phase, their engagement and their subsequent breakup.
The biggest hits included: ‘okay', 'haha', 'good' and 'baby'.
While many were touched by the data online, some were quick to point out that lots of couples communicate properly in real life, as opposed to via text message, so what you see on the screen isn't always an accurate representation of a relationship in reality.
One said: "Texting is either random I love you throughout the day or can you get this while you are out with ya, or ok as a response."
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Reddit
Emily Puckering