Facebook Could Predict When Your Relationship Will End: REPORT

Buzz is growing around The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick's forthcoming book about Facebook's rise to social networking stardom.

Citing excerpts from Kirkpatrick's book, AllFacebook.com, claims that "Facebook knows your relationship will end in a week."

How is that possible? (And is it, really?)

Kirkpatrick reveals that during Facebook's early days, Zuckerberg enjoyed analyzing the social patterns of the site's users--in particular, those in relationships.

Kirkpatrick writes (in an excerpt posted on AllFacebook.com),

As the service's engineers built more and more tools that could uncover such insights, Zuckerberg sometimes amused himself by conducting experiments. For instance, he concluded that by examining friend relationships and communications patterns he could determine with about 33 percent accuracy who a user was going to be in a relationship with a week from now. To deduce this he studied who was looking which profiles, who your friends were friends with, and who was newly single, among other indicators.

Though online privacy concerns have many Facebook users worried, AllFacebook.com assures its readers that Zuckerberg's old habits no longer take place at Facebook.

Meanwhile, Village Voice counters, if Facebook can predict the end of your relationship, it's likely that somebody in real life has noticed, too. Salon.com has a similar take:

"[Y]ou don't have to be able to see behind the scenes or develop a complex formula to tell when a relationship is on thin ice. Flirtatious comments, snippy wall posts between significant others, photos that reveal a certain sadness (or wandering eyes) -- these are all pretty straightforward hints. The same is also true of our non-virtual lives."

Read more revelations from Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect here. (For example-- Zuckerberg's early business cards read "I'm CEO...b**ch.")

Comments

[wassilij]

09:25 PM on 05/26/2010

This site will scan your privacy settings on facebook so that you can make the necessary adjustments.
It works real well......took less than 5 minutes to adjust mine....then rescans to make sure the settings are ok!!

http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/facebook

[lastep]

07:25 PM on 05/23/2010

My last wish on earth before death is now torn.........between Wal Mart's destruction and the end of Facebook

[feliznavidad]

08:13 PM on 05/23/2010

Don't forget the demise of BP on your very excellent wish list.

[Mike Burger]

06:49 PM on 05/23/2010

Can you label ad's when you post them and quit disguising them as stories.

[alexunlv]

05:10 PM on 05/23/2010

If you don't like facebook, don't use it.

If you don't want personal information on facebook, don't put personal information on facebook.

[EdBallsUp]

03:53 PM on 05/23/2010

Ugh. I'm so over Facebook. All the dubious policy changes leaves an unsavoury taste in my mouth. I moved over to www.folkdirect.com a couple of weeks ago and am building things up there. It was featured in the 'top 9 alternatives to facebook' in the Huffington Post last week too.

[LindyK]

03:48 PM on 05/23/2010

Oh for cripes sake, 33% accuracy when he's looking at who's talking to who, single status, etc. My dog could do that. 33% is statistically irrelevant. Big whoop!

[dylbud]

09:37 PM on 05/23/2010

Thank you!

[LindyK]

10:02 PM on 05/24/2010

Thank YOU! :)

[dulceburro]

10:03 AM on 05/23/2010

Is facebook paying for press on the Huffpost? I swear that for the last month or two there has been a new article about facebook, usually demonizing them, on the 'Post.

[John Kramarz]

09:46 AM on 05/23/2010

wow! 33% accuracy?
I think I could just GUESS for every couple that "you will remain in your relationship through next week", and beat his 33% accuracy.

[LindyK]

10:04 PM on 05/24/2010

I totally agree on this 33% accuracy baloney. Sheesh! You know, now that I think about it, I had pretty good success predicting the Oscar wins this year. I wonder if this makes me slightly psychic? I do believe I can see the future. (Don't bother to answer - I already know the response.)

[KennebunkportIndependent]

09:14 AM on 05/23/2010

I can predict when I will join Facebook

Never.

[ChristopherAtom]

08:34 AM on 05/23/2010

Why is this story still floating around after two weeks and making it back to the top of the tech news cycle again?

[T4Obama]

09:21 AM on 05/23/2010

Who cares, just open the pod bay doors, already.

[ChristopherAtom]

08:43 AM on 05/24/2010

Without your space helmet, T4, you're going to find that rather difficult.

[Earl]

07:44 AM on 05/23/2010

They might say they can predict these things, but are they adding on the 30 days with no contact before it becomes official?

[captcct]

06:35 AM on 05/23/2010

I just checked it and Safari can't find it! But I was only joking - am not going to register it. I have neither the time nor the money to waste my time - or yours.

[captcct]

06:33 AM on 05/23/2010

Wow! I just checked my post and found that Backside.com actually exists. Geez... what a bummer. Well how about Backbook.com - let's see if that one is available. LOL

[captcct]

06:30 AM on 05/23/2010

Yup! just believe the percentage points and you get suckered into believing anything. I think I'll start a social network group. I'll call it Backside.com... in which anyone can post a comment saying "shove it up your ar*e (a**)" or "my ba*kside got sha*ted today" and I'm going to S*it all over you" LOL

[liveordie]

01:43 PM on 05/23/2010

Sounds like my English grandmother talking to me. lol.

[justsaynomore08]

06:19 AM on 05/23/2010

"For instance, he concluded that by examining friend relationships and communications patterns he could determine with about 33 percent accuracy who a user was going to be in a relationship with a week from now. "
33 Percent accuracy? Is it just me or does that not seem all that impressive. Using my magic quarter I bet I could make similar predictions with about 50% accuracy.

[hulagirrrl]

07:27 AM on 05/23/2010

I would love to see someone predicting that people will find their perfect mate, until then, who cares what their percentage is.

[ScapeGoat]

08:04 AM on 05/23/2010

Using a dart board would give about the same percentage.