Friday, November 13, 2009

Love in the age of Facebook

While cleaning out my email in-box, post wedding, I came across this message:

Eric said on Facebook that you two are married. We need you to confirm that you are, in fact, married to Eric.

To confirm this relationship request, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?home

It made me wonder: do people going around "spousing" those they are not married to?

Could I "spouse" a bunch of friends to make a simultaneous stand for marriage equality, and for polyamory?

If FB allows same-sex couples to spouse each other, is FB implicitly making a stand for same-sex marriage? Have opponents of same-sex marriage realized this, and if so, will they start to boycott Facebook?

Does the legal definition of marriage in the state or country where a user is based determine who they can "spouse"?

In a country that allows polygymy, would men be able to spouse more people than in a country that does not?

Who needs the New York Times Weddings section when you've got Facebook??? Not only is there waaaay more information on our FB pages than in the genteel bios of the Style section, but now my far-flung friends also know of our new status.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

For some reason, when we changed our statuses, this line cracked me up, "We need you to confirm that you are, in fact, married to Eric.".

Also I have tried to list a poly relationship (with my husband and my cat) and Facebook does not let you. It lets you put "open relationship" but it doesn't let you list multiple partners. Jerks.

Eco Yogini said...

lol. well you know, I found out that a childhood, formally close friend of mine was married from a facebook change.....

blegh.

oh facebook... i'm sure there are people who are waiting on baited breath to change their status.

A Los Angeles Love said...

J's cousin actually put her engagement announcement on FB before she made all her "we're getting married" calls. Let's just say, grandparents should never get the news via the Facebook grapevine. We learned from her mistake and accounted for our social network strategy.

Born to be Mrs. Beever said...

This is so funny in an ironic sorta way. Good point about making sure you make the phone calls to the nearest and dearest before posting anything on FB. I called my immediate family when my father had a heart attack a few weeks back and then posted a status on FB asking all my other friends to please be praying for him. Come to find out, his wife and sister's had not called his own parents about his hospitalization and they found out through someone who saw my post on FB! How awful...I didn't think to call my grandparents as I expected they would have been the next call after me! (sigh)

Once my big day passes, I will be able to change my FB status to married, but alas, I won't be able to list my hubby's name since he refuses to join FB (for fear that all his past girlfriends will come back to haunt him). So will I be in a nameless marriage then?

the un-bride said...

Hahahahahahahaha!!! While I've thus far refrained from FB'ing, I'm encouraged to know their "progressive" stance on the subject of "spousing".

It kinda makes a Cali Girl like me traipsing around in an "I Heart Iowa" shirt make sense -- hehe!

"busimb": ... i got nothing

Color Me Green said...

i am 99% sure you can spouse same sex on facebook. back in college as well as those postcollege years i'm still in, my friends have engaged in "relationships" with their friends on facebook that are really just a joke. it's all the rage to be married to your friend, didn't you know?

One Barefoot Bride said...

yup, you can definitely 'spouse' a same sex partner on FB. I just checked, and some of my friends have done that very thing. But apparently FB's progressivity (?) doesn't extend to multiple relationships, unless they are "open"...