On Sept. 19, Instagram model Sumner Stroh posted a video on TikTok accusing Maroon 5’s lead singer Adam Levine of having a year-long affair with her. Stroh shared screenshots of Levine’s Instagram messages with her, mostly consisting of Levine “complimenting” her body in an inappropriate manner. Since then, multiple other women have also come forward with similar allegations.

In one of the messages — mere days after Levine and his wife Behati Prinsloo announced they were expecting — Levine asked Stroh for permission to name his unborn child after her: “Ok serious question. I’m having another baby and if it’s a boy I really wanna name it Sumner. Are you ok with that? DEAD serious.” Three minutes later, he added a man-shrugging emoji to the chain of messages, 🤷‍♂️.

Though disloyalty and infidelity are as old as marriage itself, Levine’s disrespectful messages are just a glimpse into the depravity and immorality that have plagued society ever since social media became ingrained into our daily lives. In his message to Stroh, Levine included an emoji depicting a man shrugging. The offhanded nature and indifference conveyed through the emoji prove how far Levine has strayed from his marriage and morals, providing imagery of Levine’s possible actions at the moment he sent the message, a wicked grin spread across his overly whitened teeth. 

Additionally, Levine’s use of the pronoun “I” rather than “we” highlights how he excludes his wife from his life, and the anonymity social media affords him aids in his deception. Levine also uses the phrase “serious” twice, depicting the crippling effects of social media on his attention span, causing him to repeat himself in one message. 

Furthermore, his use of auto-capitalization on the word “DEAD” emphasizes the word “serious,” hinting that he believes Stroh may have difficulty comprehending his message, which could be due to the fact that he believes women are stupid — or because Stroh has a history of not comprehending common concepts, such as staying away from married men. 

 His extremely subtle allusion to pop culture, coupled with his shortened memory span concisely conveys the negative effects of social media. Levine’s affair gives a warning to the reader: Avoid over-bleaching your hair, getting ugly tattoos and being active on social media well into your 40s. Then, and only then, can one maintain a healthy marriage.