New York, August 3 (ANI): Facebook is now being used as a preferred way to see what one's former flame is up to and even keep a tab on who their current catch is, a new study has revealed.

A research by a media studies graduation student Veronika Lukacs from the University of Western Ontario revealed that nearly 88 percent of people surveyed, used the portal to spy on their exes after breakup.

She claimed that nearly everyone uses Facebook to secretly stay clued in to what an ex is doing even if they're no longer friends.

It's very, very common, the New York Daily News quoted Lukacs as telling the Toronto Star.

Her thesis also claimed that people who 'unfriend' their exes are actually the most distressed.

I had expected people who were not Facebook friends with their ex-partners would be less distressed. We found the opposite was true, Lukacs said.

Lukacs surveyed 100 adults, who had experienced a breakup in the past year.

She also did not include people who were never friends with their ex on FB.

While almost 90 percent admitted that the social networking site is a part of their daily routine, 70 percent said that they had logged into a friend's account to keep track of an ex.

A lot of people who I had interviewed talked about their surveillance behavior and how they knew it wasn't good for them and yet somehow they were doing it anyway, Lukacs claimed.

Rationality didn't play a role for them.

Speaking more on this compulsive snooping, Lukacs insisted that Facebook stalking is more than just a creepy habit of exes who can't let go.

At the end of the day, Facebook does present very serious challenges for people getting over a breakup, she said.

It's a much more serious issue than a lot of people think, she added. (ANI)