Breaking up in the technology age

With massively popular sites like Facebook, Myspace, and countless others, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the world of technological advances.

Some claim these sites allow them to be closer to the friends and family they would otherwise know nothing about. At the same time, it allows those friends and family access to information which is not so easy to renege on.

When a relationship ends, the promise of weeks, if not months, worth of drama is waiting in the wings. Rumors start, bad information is passed around; your business becomes everyone else’s business. Long after the relationship ends, it still never seems to be over. Social networking makes it possible to make dramatic interludes last exponentially longer. Add in the speed of text messages and emails, and the situation may as well never end.

What can one do to avoid this? Well, there is always the option of unplugging and shutting down – cutting yourself off from the digital world. The separation could be therapeutic in your time of isolation.

Or you can take a cue from the tabloids. When gossip isn’t fueled and propagated by the source, the subject eventually falls to the wayside. If Britney only made pop records, we would have grown weary of her years ago. But, because she made a slew of boneheaded moves for attention, we couldn’t help but involve ourselves. To keep the complications that the internet fuels to a minimum, it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.

The internet may tell your circle of close, and not so close, friends that you are no longer “in a relationship” or that “things are complicated” You only have to reply to the people who matter most in your life. Like, your mom. It’s no secret: Your Mom Uses Facebook.

Or, face the problem preemptively. It may be tempting to digitally stake your claim on your significant other, but remember that it may be difficult to undo what is so easily done.