Facebook Can Predict Your Break Up

A recent study says that Facebook can predict break ups.

This study was conducted by Cornell University researcher, Jon Kleinberg, along with Facebook senior engineer, Lars Backstrom. Data of about 1.3 million Facebook users, who were in a relationship, was examined and it was found that couples having more linked common friends had a higher probability of breaking up.

This study was based on the 'dispersion level' or the connection the mutual friends of these couples had.

 It was found that lovers, who had high dispersion levels had less connected mutual friends. Whereas lovers with low dispersion levels had common friends who were more linked.  

"Instead of embededness, we propose that the link between and an individual u and v his or her partner should display a 'dispersed' structure: the mutual neighbours of u and v are not well connected to one another and hence u and v act jointly as the only intermediaries between these different parts of the network," the researchers stated in the study.

According to Facebook, lovers with greater dispersion levels had more chances of having a longer lasting relationship, as they would have more connection in different groups and more likely have separate lives.

On the other hand, partners having low dispersion levels were likely to lack individual personal lives, which would lead to their break up.

The researchers found that about 50 percent couples having low dispersion levels had changed their relationship status to single after two months, when their status was checked again.