Jack and Jill ran up a hill, and then posted a status update about it on their joint Facebook profile: Jack Jill Smith.
Or was it Jack Smith-Jill Smith? Or Jack N JillSmith? Jack&Jill Smith?
You might have come across a growing trend of couples who create one personal Facebook profile using a combination of their names. It's not recommended, because Facebook's rules state that only one person should be in control of a personal profile and that the profile should be a real name. A couple's combo profile can result in Facebook deleting the account if discovered.
The concept harks back to the classic thought of one family contact: one home phone number for "the Robinsons," one joint bank account, one family e-mail address.
But many online professionals will have a hard time understanding why that would be desirable, when a great deal of importance is put on online individuality and personal space.
So why would a couple do this? And what are the downsides?
Some couples like to share one page because one or both of them are not active on Facebook, and having a single account makes it easier for the family to update friends. Other couples might do it because they want to share everything with each other and prove they have nothing to hide (or perhaps discourage unfaithful online flirting).
When experienced online users were asked about their thoughts on couples sharing a page, there was an abundance of disgust at the idea. Most responses from people in their 20s and 30s assumed any couple that do so must have unhealthy trust or dependency issues.
