This graph of breakups over the course of the year, as culled from over 10,000 status updates by data-minded supersleuth David McCandless. In a pattern apparently very much influenced by the college calendar, Spring Break and the period two weeks before Christmas witness huge spikes in breakup frequency; people also like to begin the summer by being single, and Monday is the most common day of the week for breakup announcements.
While this graph is interesting, it’s depressing to see how we’re all just another data point on a simple Facebook visualization. You could easily create another graph that shows trends of people getting engaged, married, have children, etc. It’d be a pretty sweet social zeitgeist. Read more.