An interesting article came out last week about how Facebook can deduce relationships between users. Researchers at Cornell University started by studying the connections between friend groups of spouses who openly shared their relationship status on the site. Noticing the way that otherwise unrelated people were friends on Facebook because of their connection with the spouses, the researchers applied this information by scanning Facebook for similar friend group structures that might signify a hidden relationship.

I found this study noteworthy and think there is something to be said about how digital media interweaves with our social lives. By sifting through spouses’ friend groups, the researchers noticed different networks of friends broken into categories such as work, school, and church. The key point in determining a relationship between two users was ties between a spouse and a person in the other spouses network that otherwise have no clearly explainable reason for existing. This feature between couples is indicative of the social norm that a person shares his loved one with the other circles in his life. By introducing a loved one to different friends in his life, more connections are made and mimicked on Facebook, allowing savvy investigators (or stalkers) to put the pieces together and deduce the relationship.

I think this strategy is realistic and can be applied to a good deal of couples. The only flaw I see in it is that some relationships are between people who are both part of a significant friend groups, a college for instance, and therefore, I would imagine it can get tricky deciphering the friend networks. Aside from that scenario, the strategy is accurate. This is another indication of how clearly are lives are on display via social media. Privacy is a thing of the past.

Nick