Is fluther part of the digital fishbowl? Is breaking up online really that hard to do? Read on.

The Facebook situation with the writer was all too familiar to me. When my husband and I separated, he got all upset that I defriended him, even though we have a child and live 1 mile apart. I just didn’t want him knowing my business, and I also deleted all of his friends. It just seemed like the right thing to do. He was suffering enough due to our breakup and I didn’t want to cause him any further grief by anything that I may say.

That being said, I don’t feel I am my authentic self on FB. I limit myself to the number of friends I have, people I went to school with or who live far away. Relatives that are older, and from a different generation might not understand some of my witty quips about my truest thoughts. I think it sucks. I think it lends itself to less true intimacy with people, as the writer expressed.

The writer also slipped in a reference to everyone’s favorite: FB Stalking. You befriend an old boyfriend or friend of an old flame and boom you’ve got access to their info occasionally too.

I specifically moved out of a small town because of the gossip that spreads so quickly. But I notice how younger or less mature people post their lives on FB and it’s very easy keep track of some people that way. The scary part of all this is the access you have to people’s pictures and so forth.

When FB recently made it’s “privacy changes”, if you weren’t quick enough to adjust your settings, anyone could have seen your information. I was able to view an ex’s entire profile and pictures even though I was not his friend. I think those who are technically savvy have the advantage here because if you aren’t aware of these things, you can be exposed.

That being said, there really is no definition of online social etiquette. I do think breaking up online is hard to do because of all the technologies we have to keep track of each other.

I know friends who date online and when their current love interest is not being consistent, they will check their dating profiles to see if they’ve been active in a certain period of time. Even if you block your ex’s email or profile, they can easily create or obtain a new one.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

When I was getting involved with people over on Askville, that issue came up. When I broke up, some of them closed their Askville accounts. Or stopped posting. I know the feeling. You don’t want to see that person again because every time you see them, it is a reminder of what you have lost. In the end, I was glad when fluther appeared, because it meant I could leave that all behind, and never have to see anyone again.

Unfortunately, one of them did come over here, too. We had a couple of discussions sort of coming to agreement about rules to keep us from getting mad at each other—territory we had to ourselves, so to speak. But I think we were mostly respectful of each other. It was over. We all knew the risks of love, and in fact, remained caring of each other. No need to get any revenge or play petty games.