Facebook: A way to keep people connected or a public display of your life for anyone to see? Sure, there are privacy controls that can be set to exclusive, but not many people use it because then friends can't search for you. So instead, the facebook community puts every move you make on the website out on display for anyone to see. This type of information is found right when signing onto facebook on the home page. There is a list of changes your friends have made to their profiles, if they changed their profile picture, and of course any changes in relationship status. All this information is listed under the "News Feed". To make things even more accessible, any of your friends can go to your personal profile and look at your very own "Mini-Feed" which maps out each of your personal movements; who's written on your wall, where you've left comments, what new groups you have joined, who has added you as a friend... and yes, if you just ended a relationship. As if such an event weren't hard enough, we now have to advertise our loss and heartbreak to the entire virtual world. The worst part of it is when it shows a little broken heart next to the words "Jane is no longer in a relationship with John". Just rub it in a little more facebook.
The possibility for disaster with this system is huge. Example: I had been in a long distant relationship with a guy that lives in Florida for about a month. I thought things were going great, we were happy, I was going to fly down to see him.... until I signed onto Facebook and right at the top of my News Feed was the little whole heart and the tag "Dustin Wessel is now in a relationship with Carrie Nobody". How do you handle finding out the person you thought loved you is in a relationship with someone else? That's a tough enough thing... but to find out on something as impersonal as Facebook??? I'm concerned about this. I've heard so many people getting into fights and crying because someone 'un-friended' them on this stupid website. Give me a break. I joined Facebook specifically because everyone told me I should since it was so great. I really don't get it. If I want to leave an old friend from high school a stupid message I can either call them or leave an instant message or something. I do not need yet another tool to use as an excuse for not having face-to-face communication with a person. Also, Facebook gives people an even easier way to end relationships. Just change your "relationship status" in your profile. What a cop out.
The Publicity of Facebook Break-ups
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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1 comments:
believe it or not there's a worse way to dump someone than facebook. It's called "ditchmail" by youmail which is a free voicemail service. "ditchmail" allows you to pre-record the break-up message that will play to your partner when they call your voicemail and then hangs up, never giving them the chance to record a retort. Terrible news for break-ups. Good news for getting rid of people who call too much.
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