Whether we like it or not, social media appears to be over running a majority of people’s lives. While younger generations have been acculturated to the normality of having information published to the masses, they are also more likely to engaged in multiple social media networks simultaneously. Today, Facebook hosts over a billion active users.
I admit that checking Facebook and my email have become a daily ritual of mine before opening a newspaper. Facebook has also changed the way we operate in relationships from opening our network to more opportunities for dating to a form of announcing important life events such as our relationship status. It’s safe to say that announcing a new relationship is exciting while opening revealing a break up has some negative implications associated to a sense of embarrassment and failure.
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Let’s be honest and admit that when someone ends a relationship on Facebook the primary question on our mind is who initiated the breakup and all the juicy details that lead up to the big break. When it comes to Facebook, you can run but you can’t hide. People now have to manage their own feelings about the breakup while simultaneously being flooded by condolences.
Just when you think Facebook has delivered in more ways than we ever expected, they can now predict relationship success. In a new study from Cornell University, researchers were interested in taking a look at social connections and internal constructs of relationships. The research yielded two major findings:
1. A high number of mutual friends is important in relationships.
2. When dispersion (def: when partners are connected to friends from different areas of their partners’ life) is high between couples, they experience a “stronger romantic connection”.
3. Stronger romantic connection is associated to a fair level of mutual friend dispersion on Facebook.
To put this all in perspective, here’s another way of looking at it. Couples who are highly interconnected often spend most of their time outside of work together. Pretty soon you become one of those “we” couples. This high inclusion of your partner into your self-identity has been researched to signal relationship success. As you share more of your life and open your social networks to your partner, you become emotionally and romantically intertwined. This is why those who are in love often list their partner as someone they perceive as “close to”.
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So now that Facebook can predict the future, what else is in its horizons? From playing matchmaker to predicting relationship success, it’s safe to say that our virtual footprint is giving us more information than we ever expected.
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Amy Yew is a registered clinical counselor and relationship therapist. Tell us what you think and submit any questions you have to amyvancouvercourier@gmail.com. You can also tweet your thoughts on Twitter @AmyYew.
