Social Networking

Social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, have added a new twist to the divorce process. These days people don’t only break off relationships in person, they must also carefully navigate interactions online with their exes and, in many cases, their exes’ family, friends or co-workers.

On most social networking sites, your relationship status typically displays on your profile page and when you change it, it shows up in your news feed. This can be an awkward way to tell friends or family that your current relationship is over. Consider removing your relationship status from your profile and, in general, use the privacy settings, so your profile is only viewable to those whom you want to see it.

After a breakup or divorce, it isn’t necessary to de-friend your ex (and all related parties) immediately. Unless the relationship has reached a volatile point, this will make you look catty. Consider implementing a grace period of a month or so, thus giving people a chance to adjust to the news. Remember, when you de-friend someone, they don’t receive a notification, but they will find out if they try to view your profile and are unable to. If you really want to avoid an ex (and their social group), and, for some reason, don’t want to de-friend them, you may choose certain friends to view your limited profile. Your limited profile can exclude relationship status, photos of new relationships, and wall posts, so if an ex visits your page, they don’t have to see everything you’ve been up to post-division.