Over the past week there has been considerable publicity on the web over a graphic created by David McCandless used in his presentation at TED.
Despite this graphics recent publicity it was initially published in August 2010, experiencing a resurgence due to Mathias Mikkelsen reposting the graphic for Sermo Mathias.
David McCandles is a London based writer, designer and author whose work has provided him with world wide acclaim. He’s featured in such publications as the Guardian and Wired, and first discussed his relationship findings in a talk entitled “The beauty of data visualisations.“ That can be watched here at: http://bit.ly/dbTN3J
From McCandles graphic seen above, it is possible to see when Facebook relationships change from ‘in a relationship’ to ’single.’
The key findings are as follows:
• Just before Spring Break relationship breakdowns increase
• Most breakups are announced on Mondays
• People like to start summer unattached
• There is a peak in relationship break downs before christmas
• The lowest day for breakups throughout the year is Christmas Day
These findings provide an interesting insight into relationship patterns. However, this is not to say that Facebook has not had an effect on relationships.
AllFacebook raises an interesting question, suggesting Facebook could potentially create peer pressure. If individuals are questioning a relationship seeing others breaking up may encourage the users to follow suit. Or alternatively seeing some one who the user admires becoming single could add further pressure to end a rocky relationship.
