Facebook....the end of many happy relationships

Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook as we all do, but already in the few short months since I’ve been on it, I (and one of my best friends) have experienced the very thing which could end up bringing it to it’s knees….yes, something we all hold dear to our hearts (those of us with skeletons in our closets, dearer than others)….our privacy.

One of my bestest friends in the world, who will remain unnamed, recently battled against the potentially unfortunate end of her 14 year relationship, the culprit: Facebook. Well, that’s not 100% accurate, but the reason she got caught out for doing something a little bit silly- Facebook. It goes something like this- her and her boyfriend are on a break, they spent some time apart to mull things over (plenty to mull after 14 years) and in that mulling time, my friend decides she needs a holiday, and being temporarily single, needs a travel buddy. She asks around and her coupled up friends have already committed their meagre 20 days holiday for the next decade on various weddings, 90th birthday parties and christenings (sign of the times people). She floats the idea at work and finds a willing companion, male, aged 29, single and they get on well. Job done.

Not relishing the idea of fessing up to her pseudo-boyfriend that she has a holiday impending with another man, and knowing in her heart that it was entirely innocent, she decides to skip the truth and tell, what is in essence, a ‘white’ lie- she’s going with a girly mate from work- ok? There is no deliberate malice, merely the desire to avoid a potentially difficult and hurtful conversation when there was no need…all good. Hurrah.

Whilst holidaying, a certain ‘on a break ‘ boyfriend pops into the flat to get some bits and pieces and logs on to her PC. As ‘luck’ would have it, he looks at Facebook, and thank goodness the cookies had remembered her user name and password, so he thought he’d have a quick squizz. Well, you just would wouldn’t you! Once on there he sees the recently added friend ‘Mr X’, and the range of holiday pics featuring my friend at various tourist spots looking happy. Nothing incriminating, apart from the fact that my friend is clearly on holiday with a bloke, not the ‘girlfriend from work’ who she was supposed to be away with. He freaks, he leaves a message on the guy’s wall, telling him in NO uncertain terms what a f**king w**nker he is, and my friend is left shamefaced and well, caught red handed!

Things are fine now, and after a fair amount of humble pie and some serious smoothing over, they are back together as they should be. My friend is left feeling silly for thinking she had to lie, when in fact, the truth would have saved so much upset and we’re all cursing facebook for being so fecking transparent.

Meanwhile, I have been rated as an 8 out of 10 by some tosser I met in the pub ages ago, a friend of a friend. 8 out of 10. How DARE he.

Both of these stories I think prove, beyond reasonable doubt that Facebook ought to be treated with great care and caution.