After Breakups, Facebook Users Love Checking Exes' Profiles

What's the protocol for Facebook friendship after a romantic relationship ends? There's not really one set rule. A recent study by a Western University master's candidate revealed that even though the relationship is over, many people are hesitant to break ties on Facebook.

What’s the protocol for Facebook friendship after a romantic relationship ends? There’s not really one set rule. A recent study by a Western University master’s candidate revealed that even though the relationship is over, many people are hesitant to break ties on Facebook.

Veronika Lukacs, the student who wrote the thesis, “It’s Complicated: Romantic Breakups and Their Aftermath on Facebook,” revealed that 88 percent of Facebook users she polled admitted to checking out their exes on Facebook.

She explained her goal for the study:

I wanted to see how breakup distress is related to Facebook use … The more surveillance there was, the more distress there was, but it’s difficult to say why.

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