Social Networks such as MySpace and Facebook have carved a great niche on the web and for good reason. Connecting with friends and coworkers is made fun and easy so it is no surprise people have taken to them. These sites are great for sharing photos, dropping notes, inviting others to events and even making new friends. However, these networks are being used for things that really need to be left to “real life” interaction.

Last month, I hopped on my Facebook account to read some notes left by my friends and family. The second my welcome page loaded, the first thing I noticed was that my niece had changed her status from “In a relationship” to “Engaged.” What a shock! I assumed that I hadn’t received a phone call yet and moved on to reading my messages. A few minutes later, my phone rang and it was my mother calling. “She must be calling to tell me about my niece,” I thought. I was wrong. She hadn’t heard the news either but as soon as she heard it from me, she ended our conversation so she could call her son–my niece’s father.

Big surprise here but he hadn’t heard either. My mother and I had effectively played spoiler on his daughter’s big announcement. Later that night, my niece came home to her father’s house and he immediately confronter her to ask if she were engaged. That’s ultimately when he found out directly from her that the story was true.

The behind-the-scenes to this story is that my niece and her boyfriend spent the afternoon together where he proposed. She had to go to a college course that evening and got there a few minutes early which gave her just enough time to log on to Facebook and change her status. In her excitement, she failed to think of the consequences.

This event illustrates something that people have lost touch with. Myspace and Facebook have some great uses but there are certain things that need not appear on Facebook. Engagement, pregnancy or death announcements are best left to face-to-face conversations or at a minimum, a phone call. Once important people in your life (namely your parents, immediate family, spouses) know of the event, then you can feel free to post on your social network of choice. That way, unimportant people like the guy you used to study for Biology exams with will know of your news. This really should be common sense but so many of us have become accustomed to sharing news online that it becomes second nature and we let common sense fall by the wayside.

Can you think of ways social networks played spoiler on someone’s big event? Did someone you know post something on Facebook or Myspace that they really should have left offline? I’d love to hear your side of the story in the comments section.