It’s the most used social media platform for people under the age of 30 and has 400 million active users per month. Almost as soon as it launched in 2010, it’s primary function as a photo-sharing app was surpassed. In 2015 (and going into 2016), it’s become LinkedIn, Facebook, Tinder, Grindr, Raya, and Twitter all rolled into one. You can ‘poke’ people (follow them), ‘endorse’ them (like a picture), 'text' them (direct message), and ‘stalk’ the hell out of them - that one just read as ‘stalk’.

You know how it goes now. You meet someone. You don’t ask for each other's numbers, but you get their name. You put them into ‘Google’ - sorry, we mean Instagram’s search bar - and voilà. You follow them. If they like you, they might be brave, go a few weeks deep and like a few selfies - that’s basically asking you out for a date in Instagram-speak; you might return the favour. Then before you know it you've got a 'direct message' (a DM) which, in Instagram-speak, is basically a proposal.

Then what happens once you’re nice and settled as a couple, blowing off your friends and family to stay indoors instead, safely liking your drunk best mate’s pictures from the warm nook of your new lover’s arms? For some people life goes on, for others tracing your partner's social media footprint because a hobby, a sport, a part-time job. You find yourself doing a Tom Cruise in Minority Report; while your new beau is in the shower, you’re summoning up his 'like history', sifting through his tagged pictures.

For as many people as it brings together, Instagram is also tearing people apart, and no one is addressing it, because, caveat: Instagram is not real life (thanks Essena O'Neill), but, caveat: tagged photos, DMs, likes, not-liking…they’ve all become as real as a handshake, a glance, a kiss? Our behaviour on our mobile phones is as real as a face-to-face conversation and the reality is that social media is now no longer virtual: it's a very tangible part of our social and romantic lives.

Here are three brave people’s anonymous accounts of how they came to find out the person they called their partner was playing away from home via Instagram…