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Facebook was created as on online medium to stay connected with friends, but, in truth, it’s a forum that showcases every last thing about your personal life.
While you do have the ability to change your privacy settings on Facebook and control who sees what content, the majority of Facebook users (both men and women) are putting way too much information about themselves on their Facebook profiles.
Specifically, when it comes to Facebook relationship statuses, many women tend to broadcast each and every one of their relationships to the Facebook world.
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When Is It Ok To Change Your Facebook Relationship Status?
Unless you’re married, you should never put your relationship status on Facebook.
Many of the people you’re “friends” with on Facebook aren’t actually your real friends, so you shouldn’t be sharing all your relationships with them.
Truly, it’s nobody’s business on Facebook to know when and who you are in a relationship with.
As you get older and cultivate more Facebook friends that are co-workers and people you met in networking or business events, you especially don’t need to share details about your personal life.
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Why You Shouldn’t Change Your Relationship Status On Facebook
I know a lot of you are probably fighting this piece of dating advice, but think about how bad you’ve felt when you’ve had to change your relationship status back to single and you get bombarded with questions directly on your Facebook wall about why the relationship ended.
When you’re Facebook “friends” ask, “Oh my goodness, are you okay,” and “what happened,” on your wall do you really want to respond to these questions directly on your Facebook wall as well? Of course not!
The truth is, no one wants to answer relationship questions on their Facebook wall or any public forum for that matter.
But, because you put your relationship on blast on Facebook, you opened yourself up to people you barely know and friends with bad Facebook etiquette asking you seriously personal questions in a public forum where you wouldn’t want to answer them.
Another reason why you shouldn’t share you’re relationship status on Facebook is that you don’t want everyone on Facebook keeping track of the number of relationships that you’ve had.
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You’re Single Until You’re Married
Remember, you’re single until you’re married!
When you’re filling out applications or forms, you can only select single, married, or divorced. There’s no box to select for “in a relationship” or “it’s complicated.”
Since you’re single until you’re married, your Facebook relationship status should reflect that!
When you’re married, you can freely and happily broadcast that on Facebook, but until that time keep your relationship status as “single” on your Facebook and other social media accounts.
For more great dating advice, check out my book: Picking up the Pieces: Rebuilding Yourself for the Love and Relationship You Deserve.
Till Next Time,
Dee
Dee's Dating Diary 
I couldn’t agree more Dee! I had to learn this one the hard way unfortunately, but so glad I did for the future. And you’re absolutely right…”You’re single until you’re married!” 😀
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Well, it’s definitely better to learn late than never! Thanks for checking out my new post J, I’m glad you liked it!!
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Haha, nice one!
I found out when I got divorced that Facebook actually automatically hides the status for you – presumably for that very reason (avoiding complicated questions).
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Very interesting, I didn’t know that Facebook does that. I can only imagine the kinds of comments that would be left on a wall when a relationship status is changed to divorced!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, it’s always great reading your insight!!
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Agree 100%! I had no status for years and then got all caught up in a relationship last May and allowed him to post and tag me our first meeting date and relationship anniversary date. Got a zillion congrats and likes from mutual friends and others. Then what happened? A month later he dumped me for someone else. Gah.
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I’m sorry to hear your relationship ended, but it does make room for the right man to come into your life!
Keeping your relationship status as “single” during relationships definitely saves a lot of drama if the relationship ends.
Thanks for reading my post and commenting Paula, I love getting your perspective!!
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I joined Facebook when I already lived with my then-boyfriend. I loved changing my status to “engaged” and then “married.” Three years later, I marked my status private and changed it to “single.” My status will now stay private.
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It can definitely be tough dealing with the Facebook backlash of changing your relationship status to single. Setting your status to private and then changing it to single is a great way to avoid some of the Facebook mess!
Thanks for checking out my blog and sharing your experience!!
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I have to agree with the fact that so many people choose to share rather too much of their personal life in the public domain. I too am guilty of this. However, I disagree with the sentiments that you shouldn’t publish your relationship status. If you’re in a relationship you should be over the moon and want to tell the world, it amplifies how you feel about your partner and ensures everyone knows that you are unavailable. So what if it breaks down years later?! Its nothing to be ashamed about. When you published your status you were living in that present moment.
My status 6 months ago was engaged and I had been for 4 years. It is now single, not by choice. I have dealt with the awkward questions via social media and in person. It is painful and yes, its none of their business, but actually the majority of people have not wanted a bit of gossip but have been genuinely supportive.
Re the status filter questions on forms: I have completed a lot of forms recently and ticking the single box is not pleasant. I’ve noticed that these days there are far more options such as living together or civil partnership. To be honest if you want to tick an “its complicated” box then I think you need to think twice about the type of relationship you are in.
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Thanks for reading my post!! I definitely don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to proclaim your love, but it should be done with your real friends and family not random Facebook friends that you don’t really know.
As long as your boyfriend is loyal and faithful there won’t be a need to worry about whether other women know that he’s taken.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your perspective!!
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I really liked your post! It offered me some fresh perspective on how much information I’m putting on the Internet in regards to my relationships.
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Thanks Brittany! Glad you liked it!!
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I never post my relationship status. I think the only people that need to know are friends and family. Ialso dont see why I need to post a million pictures of him and i when im in a relationship…why? I have the same problem that if i put “in a relationship” than go back to “single” men bombard me with messages wanting to hook up immediately after. Now I just leave it blank. Want to know my status? Ask me!
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You make a great point about men bombarding you with messages after you go back to “single” status. Thanks for checking out my article and sharing your thoughts!
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Excellent post! 🙂 Ultimately, I guess it’s nice that people get to choose what they want to do with this option…
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Thank you!
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