You’re Not Fooling Anyone

File this one under “But of course!”

The boulevard of social media networks – get ready to say hello ello in a few weeks – is bustling with pals who wouldn’t know what a stereotype was even if you linked to a OED definition underneath their status. There is the constant activist who would give Sean Penn a run for his look-at-me-I-care money. Then you have the walking disaster who subtly hints at their dramatic night out in a series of Sunday morning subtweets about whoever their ex of two years is trying to date. However, there is no one as eyeroll inducing as the In A Relationshipper, that guy or girl who broadcasts incessantly about the fact they’re taken, are really happy about their near-connubial bliss and look they went on a daytrip to Glendalough. Hashtag matching windbreakers. You may have seen the cross-posted to Instagram snap of a bouquet that arrived in their office last week? Or maybe that cryptic link to a news story that reeks of private joke is now in your procrastinating headspace.

However, this personal PR exercise might actually mean that this relationship is actually under strain and not the perfect Angelina and Brad union all those filters try to make it out to be. A study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin called ?Can You Tell That I’m in a Relationship? Attachment and Relationship Visibility on Facebook?, found that when people feel insecure about the relationship with their partner they post more relationship-centric content on Facebook. The study’s summary concluded that ?On a daily basis, when people felt more insecure about their partner’s feelings, they tended to make their relationships visible.?

As Shoshanna famously responded to Jessa in Girls when the latter said she didn’t have a Facebook profile, “How f*cking classy.”

Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun