Facebook For Couples Is Not One Size Fits All

The thought of sharing my Facebook page with my husband makes me throw up a little in my mouth.  Not because I have anything to hide, I just, well, need my own life to stay mine.  Not everyone feels this way, though.  In November, Facebook introduced an “us” page, a revamped take on the existing “friendship” page–combining all the activities you and your sweetheart have recorded on Facebook.  My question is, is it healthy to share EVERYTHING?  As Amy Poehler and Seth Myers would say, really?  Really couples?  You can’t have your own Facebook page? You need to share it?  Really?

The “couples pages” aggregates all of your online activity with whomever you have designated as your significant other. You can go to facebook.com/us and automatically see all those cutesy little messages to each other, shared photos and mutual friendships.

Sounds harmless right?  Some users take issue with the fact that there is no way to opt out without “breaking up” with your significant other.  But even if you do that, you would still be able to combine everything through the “friendship page.”

Some couples are even taking it a step further by combining their names and creating an entirely new “couples” account.   Through a five step process detailed on a page called “Profiles For Couples” (not sanctioned by Facebook), individual Facebook users can merge their accounts into one and even combine their names like Cat&Matt!!  How adorable.

Some people seem to be enjoying their newly created co-account:

While others…not so much:

Relationship expert Maryanne Comaroto, believes that sharing a Facebook account with your significant other can be a good thing if you are both on the same page.  However, she warns that if you don’t know yourself or your relationship well enough, it can cause problems.

“If you are a couple that is considering this– I would say this is a matter of how well do you know yourself–for example, if you are a person that’s really private- and you have a partner that isn’t really private, you might go way down the TMI [‘Too Much Information’] train- and your partner’s gonna freak out,” Comaroto says.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a relationship expert and co-author of “The Normal Bar,” thinks sharing a Facebook page can be a beneficial move as long as you are open-minded about it.

“Everything that feels like a joint adventure can be bonding– however, the important thing is that if you find that it’s not a good fit– let it languish,” Schwartz said.

Some couples create joint Facebook pages because they have trust issues with their partner.  Comarato warns that this may not help a problem that already exists within the relationship.

“If they are liars and cheats in real life- they will be liars and cheats on Facebook- it just makes you more who you are,” she said.

I think the general rule here is no size fits all for each couple.  If it works for you, great…if not?  Here’s a bucket to puke in.