The easiest way to know who is getting chocolates and flowers on Valentine’s Day is to look on Facebook.

Alex Boyd, a sophomore political science major, broke up with his girlfriend, Holly Henry, but chose to leave it up to her to end things on Facebook.

“I didn’t update it on Facebook because I knew that she would,” Boyd said.

Henry, a sophomore political science major, changed her status from “in a relationship with Alex Boyd” to “single” the next day.

Henry said she was much less upset about the break up and more upset about what it meant for her Valentine’s Day.

“I bought a really awesome (Valentine’s Day) card, and then I didn’t have anyone to give it to,” Henry said.

Henry and Boyd later chose to get back together and made it “Facebook official” again.

Henry said most of her friends were kind of confused and wondered why they had not updated their status earlier.

Henry and Boyd celebrated their 13-month anniversary on Friday.

Being “Facebook official” is one of the first ways of declaring the beginning of a new relationship, but some Eastern students are being hit with wave after wave of their friends’ changing relationship statuses.

Valerie Metz, a freshman elementary education major, has been a recipient of her younger siblings relationship change updates.

“Occasionally, I’ll get updates every 30 seconds from my brothers,” Metz said. “It’s really annoying.”

When Facebook helped cause the end of one of her relationships, Latoya Mingo, a senior psychology major, chose not to announce her new relationship via Facebook.

“It seems like when you change your relationship (status) people try to get into your business and that causes trouble,” Mingo said.

While in her other “Facebook official” relationship, Mingo would receive E-mails and Facebook messages from other girls telling her that her then boyfriend was cheating on her.

“It made me suspicious when I wasn’t at first,” Mingo said.

Mingo’s boyfriend was in fact cheating on her and they broke up.

I’m glad my relationship is not public this time around, Mingo said.

“Relationships are private and drama starts when you let other people comment about your relationships,” Mingo said.

Shelby Thacker, a freshman undecided major, is trying to keep the drama in her life to a minimum and decided not to post her new status because of her family.

“My mom would be mad because my boyfriend is older than me,” Thacker said.

Jordan Sigunick, a freshman family consumer science major, gets annoyed when the same people keep change their statuses from “in a relationship” to “single” then back to “in a relationship.”

“I don’t think (Facebook) makes a relationship anymore serious,” Boyd said.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-7942 or

ovogunbodede@eiu.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction Feb. 16, 2011:

Holly Henry and Alex Boyd did not break up over the summer for a few months.