Breakups are never easy. In the modern age of smartphones it’s even harder as we are flooded with photos, videos, updates, check-ins, e-vites, and group chats in a seemingly endless sea of notifications about everyone and everything. Avoiding information about someone you clearly need some space from is therefore nigh inconceivable. You could of course bury your head under a pillow and unplug entirely, but pure isolation and social disconnection is not always healthy or ideal either. Since Facebook is the world’s largest bearer of news and information, they are instituting some experimental options that may help people cope and deal with a difficult period of separation.
The options should appear automatically for people that change their relationship statuses and come with three levels of control
- How much of their info you see
- How much of your info they see
- What happens to some prior posts and photos that include you both
The first setting will hide everything your ex shares from your News Feed and the only way to see what they are posting is to visit their profile. Their names also will not pop up as suggestions when you are posting, writing message or tagging photos. This is similar to Facebook’s current Unfollow feature but goes a little further. Both allow you to not see what a particular person posts without blocking or unfriending them.
The second setting controls how the content you share is seen. With this turned on, your ex will only have items show up in their News Feed that they are tagged in, are public, or shared on a Wall of a mutual friend. Anything else is hidden from them unless they visit your profile directly.
The final setting may take a little more time to set up since it deals with all the past moments shared together. You are given the option to go post by post (including photos) that include both of you and adjust privacy of each one; or you can automatically mark each one private and only visible only to people tagged in them. This applies only to the posts and photos posted by you; your former will need to adjust their posts and photos as they deem fit, even if you’re included in them.
Whatever choices you make will be private and the other person will not be notified. However if they do visit your profile and notice they have been missing a number of your posts, it won’t be too difficult to figure out that you have taken some steps. However this is a good alternative to limit yourself to potential heartache without erasing an important person from your life altogether while you figure things out.
The feature is only available as a trial in the US and on mobile-only for now. The program will expand and adjust as feedback is received.
Do you think this is a good addition to the social network? Would you use it? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
[button link=”http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/11/improving-the-experience-when-relationships-end/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Facebook[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
