Science

Facebook Wants to Help Your Breakups Hurt Less

Reminders of your ex are the worst. A new Facebook tool can help keep you out of that social media spiral.

by Sarah Sloat
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If you are dating right now, and you’ve been dating for the past 10 years or so, it’s likely that your exes live on through your social media. Pictures of them and that dog they adopted with their new significant other scroll past on your News Feed; someone likes an old group photo that happens to include the two of you and you’re forced to think back on the relationship. It’s hard to really ever end a relationship when your Facebook wants to remind you of them with “Moments.”

That’s why yesterday the social media powerhouse came out with a breakup tool. If you’re not at the place where you want to block or unfriend your ex completely, you can now turn on an option to not see their posts and pictures. When changing your relationship status, you’ll be able to remove your name from posts linking you with your ex.

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Sorry, Taylor. 

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“This work is part of our ongoing effort to develop resources for people who may be going through difficult moments in their lives,” wrote Facebook product manager Kelly Winters.

Besides not showing up in your newsfeed, your exes’ name won’t be suggested when you’re writing a new message or tagging friends in posts.

Facebook is planning on testing out the new service in the United States before rolling it out to the rest of its billion users.

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