Evan*, a 21-year-old student at USC, doesn’t expect any surprises when the time comes for his high school reunion. He knows the star quarterback hasn’t won the Heisman trophy and that the senior prom queen ended up marrying her high school sweetheart.

Although he hasn’t actually seen them, he’s friends with them on Facebook.

In previous generations, people went off to college and started a new phase of their life. They kept in touch with a few of their closest friends through letters, telephone and on visits home. They broke up with their boyfriends and girlfriends, cut ties and rarely heard from them again.

Today the Internet and social media are changing how people move forward from relationships. Through websites like Facebook, the constant connections make it easier for people to keep in touch with–and keep tabs on–friends and ex-lovers. A study at Michigan State University found that 96% of the students surveyed used Facebook to connect with high school friends. The study showed that people seek to keep ties with friends often in an attempt to get rid of feelings of ‘friendsickness,’ “the distress caused by the loss of old friends.”

But this interaction can make it harder for young people to move forward and let go of people from their past.“Every relationship is one in which you potentially can’t get away from,” said Stuart Fischoff, Senior Editor of the Journal of Media Psychology. “There are so many different forms of communication like email and Skype. Each one exposes you to more and more.”

Evan maintains relationships through Facebook with his friends from high school and his two ex-girlfriends. He checks what his friends have been doing through photos, and he talks to them through Facebook chat and video chat.“I find myself constantly logging on, whether I’m at home or in class,” he said. “I talk to the same people, and this has allowed me to become closer with them.”

The growing number of interactions on Facebook can make people unsure of how to present themselves online warns Patricia Wallace, author of “The Psychology of the Internet.”

“The individual is in a quandary about how to present their persona,” Wallace said. “They might feel free to make a dumb joke that high school friends might admire, but people they met more recently may find that very juvenile.”

This “audience confusion issue,” as Wallace calls it, can make it difficult for people to escape their old stereotypes, and it distracts them from focusing on their current relationships. When it comes to old friends, editor Fischoff believes the entanglement of high school could be more powerful than that of the new environment.

“It’s really a track record. What happens in high school doesn’t stay in high school if you keep putting it out there,” he said. “It might have a retarding effect on your ability to get to know people.”

While Evan enjoys how Facebook makes it so easy to stay in touch with friends, he believes that people spend too much time on Facebook  “We hold on to memories more, and we become more nostalgic as we look through old photos,” he said.

Though Facebook makes it harder for friends to detach from the pleasant memories they have together, it often has a more drastic effect when it comes to letting go of exes. A survey by yourtango.com found that 48 percent of people admitted to looking at their exes’ Facebook too often.

 Alana*, a 19-year-old fashion student at Pratt Institute, found that she couldn’t begin moving on from her ex-boyfriend until they were no longer Facebook friends. For a year and a half she checked up on his profile multiple times a day, at first watching as her old boyfriend changed his profile picture with her and then as he gradually untagged their photos together. “Facebook doesn’t generally help the healing time when you shouldn’t be talking to someone,” said Alana. “You are still so closely linked to their life and what they are doing.”

Ilana Gershon, a professor at Indiana University and author of “Breaking Up 2.0: Disconnecting Over New Media,” studied college-aged students and the habits they formed post-break-up while using new media sites.“In breakups, you often want to know what the other person is thinking or how they are doing,” Gershon said. “You have the sense that you can find out by checking their Facebook profile. However, you actually don’t always manage to get that information that satisfies through these technologies. It doesn’t seem to provide the closure you were hoping to get.”

Frustrated with the jealousy and stalking that Facebook instigates, blogger Jay Dolan started his website, theantisocialmedia.com, a satirical blog about today’s social media. He writes about issues from unfriending an obsessive ex to breaking away completely from social media sites. His posts come from experiences he personally has and the things he commonly sees on social networks.

“The constant access is a problem,” said Dolan. “It’s something we have to deal with, and lot of people don’t know how.”

Dolan’s posts reflect the turning point of these new technologies and means of communication, but he recognizes that their impact is full of possibilities as well. For Alana, Facebook made it hard for her to get over her ex-boyfriend. But it also allows her to keep in touch with friends from preschool to her old dance classes.“I think it’s beneficial that Facebook helps you keep a wide network of people,” she said. “But I also believe that you wouldn’t stay in contact with 75% of the people you usually do if it wasn’t for Facebook.”

*People’s names have been changed due to request for privacy