Breaking Up In The Age of Facebook
Breaking up is hard to do as the Neil Sedaka song goes but in the information age breaking up can be a whole production. With the advent of text messages and facebook breaking up has become a whole lot easier-that is for the guy or gal ending the relationship. With one click of a button you can change your status from “In a relationship” to “Single.” But with the ease comes a whole set of problems with which to deal.
Sure you can fast forward past the awkward conversation, and the “let’s just be friends” speech, but you can’t avoid the brunt of the cyber world’s attacks. Even if you decide to end your relationship the old fashioned way there still is the issue of changing your status with the least humiliation possible. A facebook break-up must be the way celebrities have to deal when their relationships crumble. Numerous times facebook friends have publicly consoled me after a nasty break-up, sent me ridiculous cyber gifts, but it’s just embarrassing. Then again there are those who like the attention, constantly updating their statuses with lyrics to the most heart breaking songs. And that is just utterly annoying to us civilians. I have no desire to hear how much you’re hurting, if I wanted to feel just as crappy as you I’d turn on Bill O’Reilly.
The worst is actually being dumped via facebook. Thankfully I have never been in this position, but I have several friends who have been sinned against in this horrible way. My one friend went home one weekend to spend time with her dying dog only to come back to school to see her boyfriend had ended their relationship online. It was mortifying for her, especially since many of her friends new her relationship was over even before she found out. On top of that her poor dog had just died, needless to say it was a pretty bad weekend.
It may seem uber cool to be able to declare to the world that you love your boyfriend and change your status to “In a relationship” but just imagine the pain and humiliation you’ll feel when you have to take it down and go back to being “single.” I have some friends that wear their single status with pride and courage. I also have some friends that pretend to be married to their best friends and that just makes me vomit a little. The core of the issue is when did our love lives become everyone’s business? I propose we all stop listing our relationship statuses for the world to see. Then our boyfriends and girlfriends would be forced to confront us when they want to end the relationship, it wouldn’t be as easy as a simple click. Then again we might have to deal with the awkward text message break-up and nobody wants to pay that bill.
