Facebook might be seen as a place to manage “the marriage brand.” This article examines how some couples struggle with relationship status changes and the pressure to maintain a positive outlook through a divorce.There are many unexamined cultural ideas in this discussion, such as Western notions that everyone experiences marriage and divorce similarly, which includes the need to confess negative emotions (this is not true of all cultures). Still the article is features legendary Internet researcher, MIT psychology Professor Sherry Turkle, who says: “If you complain about your pet, your job, even your children, there is a sense in which these are external to you — the complaint is about what life has dealt you. When you complain about your marriage, the boundary between marriage and the self is much less firm.”

#socialscience #facebook #psychology

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/fashion/facebook-last-taboo-the-unhappy-marriage.html?referrer&utm_content=buffere2dcb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js