Wow have things ever changed when it comes to having, or talking about, online relationships since I was a young lad. At one time even mentioning the fact that you were involved with an online relationship could subject you to all kinds of derision, not to mention ending up on some daytime talk show telling horror stories.

Now however it seems that just about everyone is involved in some sort of online relationship and unlike before we have no problem sharing that information with anyone who will read a status update on some social network. In fact is seems that thanks to the proliferation of Facebook one in every three relationships these days starts online.

It is such a popular way for people to hook up that Lab42 decided to do some looking into the phenomena and put together this infographic with the information that they found.

via Bit Rebels

A Status Update of Online Relationships [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the larger patterns of failed relationships seems to be one of the two parties failing to see or accept that a relationship is just heading south.

If you haven’t been to that shameful place yourself, then you are likely to have seen it from a friend- or you’ve been biting your tongue and bored on the other side of a 45-minute long rumination as to why someone just hasn’t returned a call, wanting to shout “because s/he doesn’t want to!” Well, imagine what the poor friends of one lovelorn Dutch woman must have put up with while she struggled through the end of a relationship.

As is common in situations like that of the woman arrested for placing an alleged 65,000 calls to the target of her affection, the scenario is a bit he said/she said. According to the 62-year-old victim, the two were never romantically interlinked. But the 42-year-old woman tells a different tale, alleging she and the man had a relationship and that the calls were not entirely inappropriate.

Hague prosecution spokeswoman Nicolette Stoel confirmed that the perp claimed the pair had had a legitimate relationship at some point, but an Early Show anchor did the math on the supposed harassment, and if the numbers work out, it paints a fairly creepy picture of the constant stalking:

“Early Show” co-anchor Jeff Glor reported her calls works out to 1,250 times a week, 178 times a day or about once every eight minutes. Glor added that calculation is based on if she weren’t sleeping.

The court ordered the woman not to contact her possibly former lover again. Have you ever been the target of an overzealous ex?

65,000 Phone Calls… And You Thought Your Ex Was Scary? is a post from: The Inquisitr

[via TDW]

[Graph] Elements of successful relationships is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scientists have discovered that unlike other unpleasant feelings, a broken heart actually activates the brain’s “pain matrix,” a region of the organ that actually exists.

Columbia University psychology professor Edward Smith said that even anger and fear don’t cause the pain matrix flare up seen when romantic rejection occurs. A study of 40 people was recently published in the medical journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in which participants were shown images of a lost love and a friend of the same gender. The visual stimulation was measured against warm and hot sensations on the skin, and the individuals were asked to rate the sensations.

Ethan Kross, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, explained the findings:

“Spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and thinking about how rejected you feel when you look at the picture of a person that you recently experienced an unwanted breakup with may seem to elicit very different types of pain… But this research shows that they may be even more similar than initially thought.”

Smith theorized that early humans were at a far greater risk when abandoned by loved ones, possibly causing us to develop a strong aversion to rejection.

Broken heart activates same pain sensors as actual, physical burn is a post from: The Inquisitr

Every. Freaking. Time. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Although this applies to all relationships, if you happen to be involved in one that began on or is largely dependent on the internet, this study could be of interest to you.

The findings kind of remind me of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, the part about researchers being able to predict future divorces based on similar criteria. It seems that in conversation, the words used by couples to communicate- not so much the content as the actual words, mind- can serve as gauge as to whether they are likely to remain together. It seems pairings in which partners adopt a similar manner of speaking have a much higher chance of “working out.”

80% of study participants who passed the sychronicity test remained together for three months following the studied conversations, versus 54% of couple who didn’t, like, talk the same. The key is, according to the study, “function words.” To wit:

These aren’t nouns and verbs; they’re the words that show how those words relate. They’re hard to explicitly define, but we use them all the time – words like the, a, be, anything, that, will, him, and and. How we use these words constitutes our writing and speaking style, says study coauthor James Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin.

Pennebaker breaks it on down:

“Every conversation sounded more or less the same to the naked ear, but text analysis revealed stark differences in language synchrony. The pairs whose language style matching scores were above average were almost four times as likely to want future contact as pairs whose speaking styles were out of sync.”

Dying to know if your relationship is one of the lucky, same-talking types? You can copy/paste chats here to find out.

[NewScientist, Telegraph, Medical News, Image]

Chatting structure could reveal viability of romantic relationships is a post from: The Inquisitr

Courtesy of The Duty we have the following rules for us to study and follow.

Thanks bud.

The ultimate safety rules for men is a post from: The Inquisitr

. . . Or does she? Jennifer’s been making the rounds for Marley & Me for the longest time, thanks to the date being pushed back again (and again), but at least she’s spicing it up with an expletive or two! She and co-star Owen Wilson were interviewed for USA Today, and it sounds like she made him pretty uncomfortable after being asked about the public’s fascination with her personal life:

“I am honestly getting sick of it, and I feel like telling people, ‘You know what? It’s none of your (expletive) business.’ Seriously, it’s enough. It’s like we’re appealing to the lowest …

And this is at a time when we should be so inspired and excited with what’s happening with the president. It’s a time to be positive and join together. We’re just trying to entertain you, man. Don’t shoot the messenger.”

I think she should go the “no comment” route so these things don’t go full-circle. Or we can just wait, because Jen hopes that we’ll realize that she has “a job and [she's...] an actress.” The good actress bit’s going to hang in the balance a little while longer, I think.

 This drama does make a movie about a dog seem way more interesting. Mission accomplished, Jen!

Jennifer Aniston Doesn’t Want To Talk About Her Relationship is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lindsay Lohan ran to her computer (and her MySpace) after a weekend of shopping to defend her relationship with Samantha Ronson. It sounds like someone’s letting the paparazzi get under her skin! Right after sweetly praising Britney Spears as a “talented woman,” she launched an attack on the “stalkerazzi” and their relationship quizzes, writing:

they should just stop asking altogether, once and for all if she and i are broken up because frankly, if we ever ever did…. i would say it before they could even think of asking. i’d say it here probably… i say everything here on myspace. okay. well, i hope that all the gossip magazines and sites, and lurkers read this cuz it’s not true. ahh! i love myspace because i can just write, and i love writing, and i can prove all the liars wrong… wow- the people that make sh*t up must really feel silly, embarrassed, out of stories, scr*w*d, f*ck*d, punk’d, and so much more. because, i can use myspace and just let everyone know what’s really going on. which is so much more fun! cuz now, people can get to know the REAL me. yay!

When your films are down the tubes, the paparazzi are your friends. Plus, how could any rumor be half as entertaining as Lindsay’s discovery that MySpace is for “let[ting] everyone know what’s really going on”? Is she realizing this just now? I’m scared.

Don’t worry about the relationship thing, because Lindsay said she’ll probably be announcing the break on MySpace when/if it happens. We’ll all be too tired of it by then to care, anyway.

Lindsay Lohan Hates On “Stalkerazzi” via MySpace is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lindsay Lohan has addressed rumors of her breakup with Samantha Ronson, this time on her MySpace. We asked for more info, and we got it. This was characteristically succinct for Linds, but as long as it’s not drunk blogging, we’re happy! Lindsay mentioned the status of her love life earlier today, saying:

“oy vey! rumors..

just to clear this up.. because i have been getting a lot of emails asking me this one question.

samantha ronson and lindsay lohan (me) are NOT breaking up

take care
xxLL”

Drama! At least Lindsay was defending her relationship, because Samantha Ronson was busy talking about “dealing with a car battery that’s dead.” We’ll give Sam a break, because she was all preoccupied with beating the “dipsh*t” she thought was going to try to sell photos of her with her broken down car.

Lindsay Lohan Continues To Slam Beakup Rumors is a post from: The Inquisitr