Facebook users can share information with the world by writing, commenting, sharing and liking posts—and now the social media site is adding a new feature that allows ex couples to limit the amount of material they see from one another.
For those going through a rough breakup, or those who simply don’t want to see or hear from their exes again, these new features gives users the ability to choose if they want to see each other’s photos, status updates, etc.
Users have had the option to be “in a relationship” on Facebook since the site’s launch in 2004. For many years, couples claimed this online status as the true mark of the beginning of their relationship. More than a decade later, the site has decided to add features that allow exes privacy settings from each other.
The new features allows users to limit the amount of content they will see from their exes after changing a relationship status. The ex’es name also won’t show up in messaging or tagging options or suggested friends.
Although not many students said they have actually tried the feature yet, they said the idea of it is intriguing.
“I think it is a great way to avoid contact with your ex, especially if you were not in a safe relationship,” said Sean Lynch, a sophomore journalism and mass communication major. “Some people will avoid it because they can still remain friends with their ex, but others may want to use it to block their ex from trying to contact them.”
After a breakup, many said they would prefer to not see constant photographs of their exes flooding their timelines because it makes things awkward, according to Anna Rine, a sophomore marketing major.
“I wouldn’t want to see what is happening in my ex’s life without me,” said Rine. “When a relationship ends, I do not want to have to keep seeing myself with that person, so I would use the feature of untagging myself in pictures with my ex to my full advantage.”
On the other hand, some think the feature is superfluous, and that there are simpler ways to rid an ex from one’s life.
“I think that this feature is unnecessary,” said Mary Frye, a sophomore strategic communication and digital media major. “If a person doesn’t want to see what his or her ex is posting to social media, they should just unfriend or block them.”
Frye added that she doesn’t think relationships necessarily need to be kept offline, but couples should be more responsible and mature about what they post. Then, the need for such features might be eliminated.
In a technological society, social media sites will continue to advance, even if relationships don’t.
kolbee14@bonaventure.edu
