How would you like to be the first to know when that boy or girl you have been pining for is now “single” 8212; or “it’s complicated” or “in an open relationship?” You can be the first to know and the first to swoop in, comforting them 8212; or something like that.
Well, thanks to the new Facebook Breakup Notifier app, now you can. “You like someone. They’re in a relationship. Be the first to know when they’re out of it,” boasts the tagline on the app’s website.
And it seems this is already a very popular app. In the first 36 hours of its release, the site was visited more than 700,000 times and downloaded more than 40,000 times, according to a Feb. 22 ABC News article. The developer, Dan Loewenherz,, said in the article he was blown away by the success of his app, which he said he meant to be a joke. The whole app is fairly simple 8212; you log on to it using your Facebook account and then select whose relationships you wish to monitor. The app checks these relationships every 10 minutes then sends a notification email if it changes.
This takes Facebook stalking to a different level. As if it is not easy enough to click on your potential romance’s profile or click “see friendship” to be able to read every single wall post in the history of your friendship. It is not easy enough to see it on your news feed. No, that is not enough Facebook creeping. There just has to be something else to alert you when someone’s relationship status changes.
There definitely is some good intention in the application. You can watch your best friend’s relationship status so you will be ready with ice cream and tissues when that tragic day comes, though by following the status, it may seem that you have no faith in the relationship.
The app looks like an easy way out of having the courage to let someone know how you feel, either about that person or that person’s relationship. How would your friends or the crush you are following feel if they found out you are using this to track heartbreak and love? They probably will not like it. But they may like it if you are honest about your feelings.
Honestly, this application is creepy. It is just another way for people to stalk on Facebook. It makes me wonder if anyone is using this on my relationship with my boyfriend. Sometimes I wonder why I still have Facebook when things like this come out.
KC Aransen is a sophomore psychology major from Arlington.
