Facing Up to Your Break Up on Facebook

Break ups are a b*tch.

From reclaiming your box of miscellaneous items from an ex’s dorm room to having to do laundry alone on a Sunday night – it can be depressing. Add Facebook into the mix and it can be downright humiliating.

Unlike deleting a phone number in your cell phone, Facebook deletes and defriends are permanent. Plus you have an added audience of 500+ “friends” watching your newsfeed so word of your break up will travel faster than an STD moving from Pauly D to Angelina to the Situation.

Today a friend of mine filled me in on her recent break up and asked me to lend some “techs”-pertise from my own dating disasters:

1. Now that you are single, wait to mingle. Okay well wait at least 48 hours. Throwing single up too quickly can make you look desperate. If you need to act immediately the most dignified approach is to hide your status and then change it to single in a few days.

2. Bury your past. You cannot untag yourself out of your own life, but if you were in a relationship for more than 6 months in your late twenties and early thirties you likely have photo albums with a minimum of: one vacation together, a birthday party at a dive bar in the east village and a destination wedding where you were forced to wear leis but could not wear shoes during the ceremony. Instead of deleting these albums take new photos that showcase your new single life. Make sure your new albums include fun titles like “Hollahween!” but nothing too obvious like “All the Single Ladies.

3. Don’t be a status seeker. Quoting Tori Amos or Death Cab for Cutie lyrics on your status updates is depressing. Step away from lyrics.com and take a digital vacation from Facebook. This way you will send the message that you have better things to do then obsess over Facebook (even if it is not true).