Facebook can be deleted with just a
click, the proliferation of social
networking sites has made forgetting
after a break-up a bigger chore, a new
study has found.
"People are keeping huge collections
of digital possessions," said Steve
Whittaker, a psychology professor at
UC Santa Cruz who specialises in
human-computer interaction.
"There has been little exploration of
the negative role of digital possessions
when people want to forget aspects of
their lives," said Whittaker.
Whittaker and co-author Corina Sas,
of Lancaster University, examined the
challenges of digital possessions and
their disposal after a romantic
breakup.
Digital possessions include photos,
messages, music, and video stored
across multiple devices such as
computers, tablets, phones, and
cameras, researchers said.
Their pervasiveness "creates problems
during a breakup, as people 'inhabit'
their digital space where photos and
music constantly remind them about
their prior relationship."
In interviews with 24 young people
between the ages of 19 and 34,
Whittaker and Sas found that digital
possessions after a breakup are often
evocative and upsetting, leading to
distinct disposal strategies.
Twelve of the subjects were deleters,
eight were keepers, and four others
were selective disposers.
Some of the heartbroken may want to
forget but are "extremely resistant to
actual deletion," Whittaker and Sas
found, most often the "dumpees."
Others later regret disposing of
everything.
Disposal is made more difficult today
because "digital possessions are in
vast collections spread across multiple
devices, applications, web-services,
and platforms," they said.
"When the relationship is good, this
promotes a rich digital life. But when it
sours people have to systematically
cull collections across multiple digital
spaces," researchers said.
Facebook photos can be untagged but
not deleted if posted by someone else.
"It's time consuming and emotionally
taxing because people tend to re-
engage with possessions, especially
photos," they note.
Some of the initial tactics encountered
were: changing one's relationship
status to "single," immediately
unfriending or blocking ex-partner's
access to ones' profile.
The study appears in the conference
proceedings.
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