I think a lot of people put more value in facebook then I do. I use it to keep in touch with friends and family. As long as I think a guy is nice, I will friend him on facebook. I don’t see a reason why I’d have to wait to see if we were exclusive. Although, to be honest, I will never add the guy. They will have to add me But I’m not one of those people that will post every single thought that has come across my head that day or what I ate that morning. I’ve only un-friend one ex, and that was because I thought he was a tool. I’ve kept friends with another ex which totally broke my heart, but seeing any updates from him only hurt for a little while. We are still friends to this day. I wouldn’t care if someone un-friended me really.

I don’t really think you are doing yourself a favor by acting on “what ifs” and fear. The point is that you will never know what is going to happen. That is life! Do you really want to limit yourself like that? This seems silly to me, but then again.. I’m not hugely sentimental like that.

Also, this may or may not work for you, but you can create folders for text messages and emails where you may want to save communications and if things do not work out then all you have to do is click delete and it is easily sorted out in minutes, rather than trailing through your inbox. From personal experience, in the past I used to keep hold of old communications and would struggle to delete them and then a friend asked me why? Having given it some real thought I guess it was my way of holding on to the relationship that no longer was. Now I just go to my folders and click the delete button… despite how painful it may be.

If you want to avoid feeling that pain again, stop having relationships.

If a relationship ends, there’s going to be pain. The more significant the relationship, the greater the pain. If a relationship doesn’t end, there’s also going to be pain … because getting along with someone over the long run can be a difficult and painful process. And the more significant the relationship, the greater the pain.

Do you want a significant relationship badly enough to risk feeling pain?

I believe when we choose any action because we’re being guided by fear – It’s a bad idea.

Your fear of a perceived future break-up has you in break-up mode right now!

When you do fall in love you may wish you had those early emails, texts, cards to look back on and regret you were so hasty and trashed everything.

I tend to save correspondence and mementos, but whenever I’ve tossed things out, it’s been for the better. My entire old Yahoo account was deleted somehow (I blame Yahoo), and all of my e-mails from my college ex were deleted. It was a bummer, but it left me lighter — because along with the gushy letters, I also had old e-mails from him when we were fighting that weren’t so nice. Same with my most recent ex: He de-friended me on Facebook, and I am so glad. I had already taken him out of my newsfeed, but it was still tough to see him with his new life, even though I had no desire to get back together with him. I’m glad he took himself out of the equation.

I think it’s a case-by-case basis. I’m still friends with that college ex on Facebook, and I enjoy seeing what he’s up to now. Probably because I don’t harbor any ill will toward him!

I say do what you feel comfortable with. No need to expose yourself to digital discomfort if you can avoid it. Go ahead and wait until you’re exclusive to friend a guy on Facebook. Doing so early on isn’t necessary to find a happy relationship.