Facebook+Relationship+Statuses

Lindsey Jackson **Facebook Relationship Statuses**

**Brief History of Facebook** The popular social networking website was launched in 2004, by a sophomore at Harvard University named Mark Zuckerberg (Carlson, 2010). He created the site to allow people to create profiles, keep in touch with friends and exchange messages at the click of a button. Options of information to post publicly include birthday, hometown, school, workplace and relationship status ("Facebook," 2011).

**Changing Facebook Relationship Status** Facebook offers a simple "edit profile" button as a shortcut to the profile options. Once the user has clicked on the "edit profile" button from their homepage, they are brought to the 'basic information' section. This page offers the user the ability to change hometown, current location and birthday among other things. In order to get to the relationship section, the user must select the 'Featured people' section from the toolbar on the far left side of the screen. Once in this section, the first option is 'Relationship Status.' Once clicked, a drop down list of all the available relationship options appears. The user must click their option and proceed by clicking the 'Save changes' button at the bottom of the screen. The new status will appear on both the user’s profile, and on the site's newsfeed, allowing friends to see the new change (Facebook, 2011).

**Relationship Status Options** Facebook allows users to publically post the current status of their relationships on their profile. Posting the status of your relationship on such a public forum allows others to see if you are single or taken simply by clicking on your profile. The status options to choose from given by Facebook include: -Single -In a relationship -Engaged -Married -It's Complicated -In an open relationship -Widowed -Separated -Divorced -In a civil union -In a domestic partnership While this may seem like many options, not all of them were available until recently. As of February, 2011, Facebook added both "In a civil union" and "In a domestic partnership" in hopes of pleasing the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Community by offering more appropriate options for their relationship status (Noah, 2011). Facebook currently estimates that 60% of their users are listed as either "single" or "married" (Suddath, 2009).

**Wishful Thinking** Even with the addition of two new relationship options, some users would still appreciate a larger selection when it comes to their love lives. In the picture below found on [|www.failbook.com] one user posts what they //think// Facebook should offer as more realistic options, especially for the college population. These options include, but are not limited to "Being led on by someone," "Best friends with benefits," and "In a love triangle" ("Failbook," 2011). For many college students, these are very realistic options considering their current love life. Facebook does not have an exhausted list of options when it comes to relationship statuses, yet users are given several options to choose from, and even the option to completely omit a relationship status from their profile (Suddath, 2009).

**FBO** "FBO" otherwise known as "Facebook official" is part of many college students’ slang vocabulary. The entire topic of going Facebook official is extremely controversial and a personal preference. Groups have been created on the popular social network that boast the name "It's not official, til it's Facebook official" (Facebook, 2001). The progression of relationship statuses as reported on a University newspaper website called "The Black Sheep" is as follows (Sommers, 2010). -Take the "single" status off your profile  -Put up "in a relationship" but do not specify  who with  -Once you've had the 'exclusivity talk', you add  who you are in a relationship with While starting a new relationship in real life is exciting, the act of going public with your new relationship on Facebook can be complicated. As Daniel Dickstein from the popular college website “Her Campus” states,

 “t o complicate Facebook relationships, it seems that the majority of people who are truly in a relationship choose not to share that detail on Facebook. A possible reason for this is that people don’t want their relationships to be public. Who wants to have people following them like the paparazzi follows Brangelina’s relationship status? In addition, when people break up in “real” life, they also have to break up on Facebook and then the world knows that their relationship failed" (2011).

The girl in the relationship is generally the one that makes a bigger fuss about going public with the relationship, while the boy is more hesitant (Sommers, 2010). Girls often want to know that their new man is committed enough to her to tell the entire Facebook community. While both parties may in fact be equally committed to each other and the relationship, it seems that guys in general do not feel the need to go public with the fact that they are in a relationship. Many males who are in favor of becoming “FBO” are generally mate guarding at some level. Mate guarding is seen as a form of jealousy or protection of a partner in order to assure that others know two people are in a relationship and prevent others from encroaching (Buss, 2002). Mate guarding may also be used to keep a relationship strong and prove commitment. Becoming Facebook official may be seen as a form of mate guarding by showing the Facebook community that both you and your partner are off the dating market.

**Breaking up via Facebook** Breaking up is hard to do. Breaking up via Facebook relationship status change is as easy as a click of a button. " Proper breakup etiquette is not to change the status until after you've had the 'we need to talk' talk. Then you race each other home (or back to the iPhone) to be the first to change your status to single" (Suddath, 2009). Having 'the talk' about breaking up in person is the appropriate way to end the relationship. Changing your status to single before having the breakup talk is the equivalent of breaking up in an e-mail or text message. Once it is officially over however, it is appropriate to change the status of your relationship on Facebook.

** Fake Relationship Statuses ** While many users post their relationships on the site truthfully, some opt to be in 'fake' Facebook relationships. The most common partnership in this case is between two close friends (often two heterosexual girls). These 'fake' relationships are generally portrayed on Facebook as "In a relationship," "In an open relationship," "It's complicated," "Married," "Engaged," and now thanks to the recent edition, "In a domestic partnership," or "In a civil union" (Dickstein, 2011). It is a way to be in a 'Facebook' relationship, either when single or without the stress of committing to become 'Facebook official' with an actual partner.

** References ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Buss, David. (2002). Human mate guarding. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">[] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Carlson, Nicholas. (2010, March 05). //At last-the full story of how facebook was founded//. Retrieved from <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">[|http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010- 3?utm_source=Triggermail] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Dickstein, Daniel. (2011). Daniel dickstein tells it like it is..on facebook relationship statuses. //Her campus//, Retrieved from <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> [] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Facebook. (2011) [|http://www.facebook.com] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Facebook. (2011, April 6). In //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Retrieved 22:04, April 6, 2011, <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> from [] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Failbook. (2011, March). Retrieved from [] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Noah, William. (2011, February 18). //Facebook introduces two new relationship options//. Retrieved from <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">[] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Sommers, Jessica. (2010). Sex and the u: becoming facebook official. //The Black Sheep//, Retrieved from [] <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> Suddath, Claire. (2009). Your facebook relationship status: it's complicated. //TIME//, Retrieved from <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> [|http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895694,00.ht]ml