Teens break up in MySpace comments

For teens breaking up is not private anymore it is all said in comments, blogs says researcher Danah Boyd.

Teen breakups have never been particularly mature, but they've certainly evolved in terms of delivery. In the '80s, a teenager might have delivered the decisive blow by passing a soon-to-be-ex a note in class. In the '90s, he or she might have left a message on the person's answering machine. Now, teens are known to leave the breakup note in the scroll of MySpace page comments of their former sweetheart. That way, all of their friends can see. Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkley, did a research on teen behavior online and found that teens breakup in MySpace and other blogs and leave a break up note in their boyfriend's or girlfriend's comments sections. This way they let others know in making this announcement to the public. Danah Boyd spoke about this at the ETech conference and said teens are well aware whatever they say on phone or e-mail is going to be publicized so they think why not put that in comment area directly for everyone to see. Still, there's a downside. "Of course, while digital expressions are persistent, they can be obliterated in a matter of clicks by a heartbroken lover. By deleting a significant other from one's friend list, all of the comments evaporate," she said. Danah Boyd said for teens, the public MySpace breakups seem to be a signature of a generation coming of age online. Before teens love life was private, pictures, diaries, videos, etc., and will never will say about break up publicly, but now it is totally opposite everything is announced or shown in the page. Adults find it disturbing but for the teens the internet is the way of life. I agree I haven't seen this in MySpace personally but I have seen this in Yahoo 360, not only they break up in comment areas sometimes they write blogs about it. They break up and fall in love so quickly, and talk about love very very early, which is kind of scary. Do you see similar trends in break ups?