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Man Changes Facebook Relationship Status, Gets 400 Calls From Ex's Friends

by Will Safer on May 22, 2008 at 08:57 AM

Social networking status can complicate personal relationships.

If you use a social networking Web site like Facebook or MySpace, just how explicit are you with your personal details, especially your relationship status?

Some users have been getting themselves into awkward social situations, even provoking problems in their personal relationships, all due to status messages that sometimes reveal more – or sometimes less -- than they would want or intend.

Changing the status from "in a relationship" to "single" got one man into hot water with a very large circle of online friends – and caused his ex-girlfriend significant embarrassment when many of those friends reached out to her.

Others find themselves pressured by girlfriends or boyfriends to change "single" status to "in a relationship," perhaps to announce to the world (the online one, that is) that they are, in a sense, off the market.

One psychoanalyst says social networking sites can add pressures to a relationship as it develops. Making the status public for all to see alters the dynamic between people and breaks down some of the intimacy.

So, how much do you reveal to all your networked friends? [Source: ABC News.]

Tags: Facebook, MySpace, privacy, relationships, social networking, SocialNetworking

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