The Importance of the Facebook Relationship Status: It's, Well, Complicated.

Every relationship has its defining moments. There’s the first date, the first kiss, the first time you meet his parents…and, of course, there’s the all-important day when you click “accept” and broadcast your budding romance to the world: congratulations, your relationship is Facebook official!  

Maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But even in the hookup culture of college, where relationships have a tendency to disregard traditional road markers, this particular step has become an important one for many college women. And in a world where social media plays such a huge role, it’s often a point of contention.  

Her Campus polled more than a hundred college women across the country to find out what you really think about the Facebook relationship status. It seems like a non-issue on the surface: there are eleven options (the standard Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, Married, In an Open Relationship and It’s Complicated, Widowed, Separated or Divorced and recently added In a Civil Union and In a Domestic Partnership), or you can choose to remove it from your profile entirely. But for such a simple change that only takes a couple clicks of the mouse, there’s more nuance to the issue of the Facebook relationship status than you’d think. 
 
A new milestone for the new millennium
There’s no denying the influence of social media today. Everyone and her mother have a Facebook page, and our online personas have become a legitimate facet of our social lives. For many people, that means that becoming Facebook official does represent a significant milestone in the progress of a serious relationship. “I think it's kind of like saying you are committed to that person and you want everyone to know it,” says Ashley, a senior at the University of Missouri. “It's become another test or step to the relationship.” 

The prevalence of social media in our lives, particularly Facebook, has made going public with a relationship as easy as the click of a mouse. “I think it's more important for girls, because we want him to want to show us off, and making it ‘Facebook official’ is declaring to the world that he's with you and only you,” says Meagan, a junior at Colorado State University.
 
For some people, like Sarah, a recent graduate of Simmons College, this step is crucial. “Relationships with real boyfriends are not real until put on Facebook,” she says. “I have broken it off for not wanting to be official. If you don't want to share this info with friends, then why bother?” 

Some believe that if you’re not willing to go Facebook official, then you aren’t serious about the commitment. “I know from personal experience that if you are hiding your relationship status or won't put who you are in a relationship with, you are usually talking to or looking for other people,” says Julianna, a sophomore at Simmons College.  
For others, it’s simpler than that. Rachel, a junior at James Madison University, sums up the sentiment of many with the straightforward remark: “If I'm proud to be with someone, why hide that from others?”