Monday 18 August 2008

What is your facebook status?


I have been an active member of facebook for some time now. In the beginning it was more a tool to stay connected to my friends in London; now it seems it has conquered the francophone world and most of my friends are also facebook friends.

Facebook has put me back in contact with some friends I totally lost touch with, mostly from primary school or high school. It’s also a good way to find out what happened to the people you shared some time with.

I am however intrigued with the whole facebook status thing that is going on. Like any other network site, it is asking your name, DOB, hometown and finally your status. Your status defines in what kind of relationship you are. There are the obvious: single, engaged, married and the not so evident: “it’s complicated” and “in an open relationship”.

When I first joined facebook I ticked the single box. No question asked I was really single and didn’t think twice about it. After getting a couple of silly emails from guys I didn’t know offering me some not so honorable services, I un-ticked the box and became “nothing”. The following hours I had a couple of emails from friends asking me who the lucky guy was. The power of facebook.

But what astonishes me even more is to get notifications that someone is newly single. Obviously the poor “friend” has just been dumped or decided to terminate a relationship and the first thing you think about is “gosh I have to change my facebook profile, it’s totally not accurate anymore.” Action that becomes even stranger when hours later you can read that the person is “in a relationship” … or “engaged”.

So yes I understand, people change their mind all the time, hell I do to. But my initial reaction wouldn’t be to post it on facebook…

And when do you decide to put such information on facebook? Is it a mutual decision or does one party find himself suddenly tagged in a relationship? Is there a conversation beforehand necessary? If you are in a facebook relationship does that mean it’s serious?

There is no more mystery on the world wide web.

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