“Have you heard? John and Mary broke up.”

“How do you know?”

“She just updated her Facebook”

Believe it or not, this is how many people today find out about break ups and new relationships. With just a few clicks, you can make it ‘official.’

As Facebook continues to grow in both size and influence, more and more people are making their relationships public. While by no means is it a requirement to state who you are dating or if the relationship is ‘complicated,’ Facebook users feel the need to share it with others.

Facebook: Reality?

I remember once when someone told me that if it wasn’t on Facebook, it wasn’t official. While this may be just a saying, the truth is that Facebook has done such a good job of representing real-life relationships online, that for some, reality and online blur together.

While Facebook is far from close to replacing real-life relationships, perhaps this is the future of social networking sites. When you look at the success of online dating networks like eHarmony and Match.com, both of which have over 20 million registered users, the foundation of their success is rooted in their ability to leverage online connections and transform them into real ones.

A user on eHarmony doesn’t know what their potential ‘match’ looks like in person, but can develop an idea from pictures, video, and basic profile information. Similarly, on Facebook it is not uncommon for individuals to be friends with people they have never met before in person, yet converse and network with them as if they have.

While the comparison was made to dating networks, Facebook will never be a dating network. Facebook isn’t just about your love life, that is just a small portion of it.

[Name] Is No Longer Listed As Single

Another relationship starts, another one ends. That is the cycle. No one is alarmed anymore when someone becomes single it seems, but that is what happens when your community is built around sharing what used to be private information reserved only for those close to you. It’s not uncommon for you to run into someone at the market whom you haven’t seen in 5 years, yet seemingly know everything about them. Still, you wouldn’t dare say or ask about details you’ve read about them on Facebook for fear of being called a stalker, but would rather ask questions about things you already know the answers too.

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Facebook continues to change the way we interact and network with others. As more and more information becomes available to others, the question then becomes, when the time comes for you to update your Facebook Relationship status, what will you choose?

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Joseph Yi is the Director of Marketing at Viralogy.com and works in social media and sports consulting. Find more about him on his website.

Did you hear who is getting married? Or about who got accepted into medical school? If you haven’t go check your Facebook feed, it is bound to be there.

As Facebook continues its’ rise to social networking supremacy, it is re-inventing the way we get information. Before there was Facebook, the way we got information about our friends and colleagues was through word of mouth or email. While we still share information through this manner, Facebook makes email seem like ‘snail mail‘ in comparison. Through news feeds and live updates, you can tell people where you are and what you are doing. You can share what you think about the movie you just saw and who you are dating and in some cases, who you aren’t. In an extreme case, you can even update your friends that you are “lost” and “trapped.”

No Pictures Please

Not only is Facebook changing the way people share information, but it is also changing the rules on etiquette and professionalism. When I was in college, a popular line I would hear people say was “this better not end up on Facebook.” Privacy is no longer as simple as saying “no pictures please.” Instead, you have to be worried about your employers seeing that one trip to Vegas, and also what people are saying about you.

Just in the same way we developed email etiquette and best practices when it first was introduced, the same is being done with Facebook.

Your Mother Uses Facebook

Not only are your friends and co-workers on Facebook, but there’s a good chance that so is your mother, father, and that one cousin you rarely see. Some may think it’s ‘un-cool’ that your mother wants to know what you are up too, but then again, she is your friend right?

When Mark Zuckerberg first created Facebook, his plan was to build an online version of real life relationships. Not only does that mean building a platform that represents the relationships you have with your friends and co-workers, but also with your own family. With the median age of Facebook users steadily rising, parents and children will eventually start sending “Friend Requests” which will undoubtedly make for dinner table conversation when they tell you to change your profile photo.

Anytime, Anyplace

If you look at the appeal that sites like Facebook and Twitter have, one of the biggest draws is its real-time updates and that you don’t even have to be sitting in front of a computer to do it. A great example of this was earlier this year when NBA player, and then Milwaukee Buck, Charlie Villanueva, tweeted during halftime.

Facebook’s current slogan is “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” In light of the way Facebook has been able to change many aspects,  a better one might be: “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you anytime. anyplace.”

Photo by pshab