I recently broke up with my boyfriend of about ten months.  In that time, we shared some great memories.  And like all memories, they have to immortalized on my Facebook and Myspace pages.  I list myself as in a relationship; we share photos of us together; we give Facebook gifts; and we post on each other’s Facebook walls.  So now we break up.  What do we do with all this baggage?

Dealing with physical gifts is easy - you just throw it out a window and tell them your ex-significant other to come pick it up.  But the digital world has change this.  Suddenly, my break-up is very public.  When I change my relationship status, all my Facebook friends are notified on the News Feed.  Friends I didn’t speak to for months suddenly want to talk.

But first I have to ask, when do I change my relationship status?  Right away or is that rude?  Should I delete our photos?  Should I delete the gifts and posts?  These aren’t simply love letters hidden in a shoe box.  Any changes I make are open for the public to see.  My ex can see any changes I make to my profile and vice versa.  Now it’s like we have to break up all over again online and this time all our friends are watching.

My advice is treat this part of the break-up like a band-aid and just finish the job quickly.  The break-up itself, obviously, can be a mature discussion, but come on, nothing about Facebook and Myspace is meant to be mature. Break-ups are hard enough, but to have constant reminders every time to go online would be masochistic (unless you’re into that sort of thing).  Even if you think you might get back together, most of this stuff can be recreated so it’s not a huge loss - that’s usually the reason you’d want to keep stuff around, for the just in case.