This afternoon I got in a conversation with someone about the logistics of Facebook relationships. Recently I’ve met a variety of individuals that each have different policies on when they make a relationship official on Facebook and whether or not they ever do. Ultimately relationships are one of the most complicated things and with the rise of Facebook, it has become even more complicated.
If one person is into a relationship more than another and wants to make a relationship public as to “lock in” the other person, they may push for what amounts to a public announcement. Is there some sort of standards for Facebook relationships though? Do you have a standard that you follow? Personally, I prefer to keep all relationship information off of Facebook as I have professional contacts that are my “friend” on the site.
Other people I know actually state things such as “Is Complicated”. That doesn’t really sound like a position of strength from negotiating purposes though. Then again, successful relationships aren’t exactly negotiable, are they? Honestly this isn’t the relationship blog but I thought I’d mix it up a little and talk about Facebook relationship statuses. What standards do you follow?
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Has to be done well beyond midnight on a weekend, when the two people are together. Has to be done simultaneously or else it's a total fail. The other approach is to start with "in a relationship" quietly then wait a few weeks and see how it takes. The formal "in a relationship with so and so" should only come at the moment at which it makes both people happy to accept/confirm. I only wish that someone would mine all this data and make a huge graph based on who's dated whom.
Comment by Dan — October 20, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Interesting. I'm married. I state it in the relationship part of my profile. But FB is mostly my personal networking and friends site and only in certain circumstances do I mix business with personal. I don't consider my relationships are my business contacts's business… although it's nothing I hide. Besides, putting my married status (and who I'm married to – he's also on FB) keeps the dating requests away. That is a Good Thing
Comment by nicky — October 20, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
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Pingback by The Facebook Killer Is Jailed — October 21, 2008 @ 9:35 am
I have a friend who is using "It's Complicated" because she's in the middle of a divorce.
Personally, I'm married, and everyone who is my Facebook friend knows that.
Comment by Tamar Weinberg — October 22, 2008 @ 9:24 pm
So if the status of "in a relationship with so and so" requires the confirmation of both parties for it to post on their pages, what happens when one side ends the relationship? Does the other person's page change automatically? How does that work??
Comment by Michael Michaels — July 13, 2011 @ 3:24 pm