Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Fourth Facebook Installment: "It's Complicated"
Someone posted a comment on my second Facebook installment: "What about men and women who are in serious relationships but don't acknowledge them on Facebook?" Well, Anonymous, that's a tricky one. Because while it may initially appear as shady that someone has no mention of a significant other on his/her page, it is considerably less annoying than those people who seemed to have created Facebook accounts for the sole purpose of broadcasting their relationships to all of their high school classmates. Are you guilty? Here's a checklist:1) Is your profile picture a shot of you and your romantic partner in an embrace? (Not only is this an example of "forcing it," but it is also breaking the rules on profile pictures stated clearly in my third Facebook Installment.)
2) Do you caption the pictures in your photo albums with extremely obvious and unnecessary identifiers, such as "Me and the hubby" (underneath a wedding portrait)?
3) Are your status updates often related to mundane activities that involve your other half? ("Pete is going to get something to eat with the best girlfriend ever.")
Kidding! I actually think it's sweet that folks are so in love and want to let the world know it. Pictured above are Christine and Kevin in one of my favorite candid shots of happy coupledom. But to get back to Anonymous's question, I think that I'll leave "relationship status" as a discretionary item. I mean, if you're on Facebook to promote your new business venture, then I don't think it's wrong for you to omit that special someone from your page. The only thing that I absolutely forbid is choosing the label, "It's Complicated" to describe your current romantic state. It is way too much information, and frankly, a little pathetic. It becomes a lot pathetic when all of your friends get an update on their news feed that reads like this: Mary went from "In a relationship" to "It's complicated." Suddenly concerned acquaintances are posting sympathy notes on your wall. Good grief.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Exit Interviews With My Exes: An Unusual Valentine's Day Project
In light of the Hallmark holiday, a few folks took interest in a recent experiment of mine where I went back and got the real deal from guys I've dated. Here's a link to the interview on National Public Radio:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100677035
Or you can read my article on The Root:
http://www.theroot.com/views/exit-interviews-my-exesHave a fabulous February 14th!
