Dating Advice From Facebook?

In honor of the big day tomorrow, Facebook conducted a research study based on relationship data from users in fifty of America's largest cities.  It provided information on the best and worst cities to find love and on the duration of already established relationships.  For example, Colorado Springs offers the highest probability for "relationship formation," and the city with the highest percentage of single individuals is Detroit, Michigan.  

It also provided information about top restaurant check-ins, along with the length of Facebook users' relationship.  One of my favorite facts was that almost half of all Facebook relationships that last three months, are likely to survive at least four years.  Also, I was interested (but not surprised) to see that the number of breakups was at its highest during the summer months.  Maybe social media hasn't changed the mentality of college students, like Professor Robinson suggested.  Perhaps, they still wait until those summer months a part to let their relationships fade out.

Some may attempt to discredit the facts presented by Facebook as not an accurate representation of the American population.  While it may not be exact, over fifty percent of the U.S. population are Facebook users, and I bet the majority of them are the younger portion of the population, to whom these dating statistics would prove more relevant.  One problem that I have with the accurateness of the study was users who don't regularly update their status or take it seriously.  For example, just the other day, i discovered that I was engaged on Facebook.  My Facebook has probably listed me as engaged for over two years.  Many users simply forget about their relationship status or don't care.

Overall, it wasn't the statistics presented or the facts discovered that really interested me about this study.  I was more interested by the various utilities of Facebook today.  It is no longer just a forum for connecting with others and sharing our thoughts and ideas.   Its extent now reaches over research pursuits and information gathering.  All the things that we can discover with social media is incredible.  We can predict who will win an election and what will be the next big trends.  And now, spreading into our personal lives, we can predict relationship probabilities.  

Guess it's time for me to move to Colorado.