Facebook is making it even easier to see less of your ex
Finally
Facebook is introducing life-changing new break up features which mean you can officially see less of that ex you’re trying so hard to forget about.
Now, when people end their relationships on the site, they’ll be greeted with a number of tools with which they can effectively ghost out their ex partner, all without having to delete or God forbid, block them.
You can choose to see less of their name and profile picture, and none of their posts on your newsfeed. Their name will also no longer pop up as a suggestion when you go to send a message to your new bae or tag a picture of yourself “getting over it”.
Inevitably, after any breakup, comes the routine untagging cleanse, where you sit down with a glass of vino and one hand over your eyes and purge all your couple pictures from your profile.
Depending on your break up vibe, it’s a sad, or sickening, hour of your life, but Facebook is taking care of that from now on. With the soothing touch of one button you can untag all posts with your ex, or edit who sees them.
Even better than that, you can actively limit the photos, videos, and status updates your ex sees of yours: every detail is covered.
The Facebook website says the move is part of an “ongoing effort to develop resources for people who may be going through difficult moments in their lives”. Breakups are difficult moments, and not just emotionally. Whether you parted on good terms, made a terrible mistake or just straight up want to make wind chimes out of your ex’s ribs, the social media aftermath is a minefield.
Whatever’s gone on, seeing your ex-bae liking other people’s pics or slathered in neon paint getting on a 5/10 at a traffic light party is bum out, just as much as their Spotify Morrissey update or that tragic, and quickly deleted, drunk status about “just needing time.”
You break up with someone for a reason, and no one wants salt in the wounds or aggravating and catty photo uploads. But, can any of us truly say we want rid of that option forever?
No, understandably you don’t want their name or pictures up in your grill as soon as things have ended, but deleting or blocking anyone, let alone an ex, is inevitably going to lead to awkward Jäger-stained encounters in the club and regret that you can longer check up on how truly shit they’re doing without you.
That sly check in on a past ex and their sub-par new partner every so often is one of life’s most glorious gifts, and now, thanks to Facebook we never have to be deprived of it again.
At the moment, this has just been rolled out in the US, but once it gets to the UK it’s going to revolutionise break ups as we know them.