The Facebook phenomenon allows you to reconnect with your best friend from elementary school, keep up with your buddy’s travels and get out of hours-long phone conversations with your aunt. It truly is a remarkable tool. But, as with most things, there is a dark side to Facebook. While your male brain may not have tapped in to the full manipulation potential of this seemingly innocuous social networking tool, chances are several of the women you know have. Women are trained in the art of creating, maintaining and controlling relationships, and Facebook is just one more resource they can use to keep tabs on and influence people. Here's a list of some crazy things women do on Facebook.

Women set up fake profiles to follow exes on Facebook

This one may seem a bit extreme, but it is certainly not unheard-of for a woman to set up a fake Facebook persona in order to creep on her ex’s profile. At the very least, she might get a mutual friend to allow her a little access to an ex’s Facebook page. Whether you broke up badly or it was mostly mutual, if you don’t keep in touch, she probably wants to know what you’re up to. Instead of calling or e-mailing you, it’s easier and less embarrassing to scope out your profile while you are blissfully unaware that she is checking up on you. If you want to prevent this from happening, don’t add any strangers to your friends list. If you have a friend you know is still in touch with her, keep your interactions limited.

Women manipulate through Facebook photos

The photos a woman posts on her profile can be innocent — or they can be totally manipulative. Another crazy thing women do on Facebook is to put up embarrassing or compromising photos of people that have gotten on her bad side. When a guy breaks up with a girl and the next day photos of him in one of her dresses hit her profile, it’s not only vindictive, but also pretty immature.

A woman might also use her Facebook photo albums to present an image of herself that doesn’t exactly match up to reality. In her photos she might appear more sexy, more adventurous and altogether more exciting than she is in real life.

Women post passive-aggressive Facebook status updates

The Facebook status update can share big news with your friends or the mundane activities of your day, but for some women they can also serve an emotionally manipulative purpose. Whether it’s because she hates confrontation or she just wants the world to know what a jerk her boyfriend is, some women use their status updates to air complaints about their relationship instead of sitting down and talking it out directly. For example: “Valerie visited the jewelery store and is tired of waiting!!!!” could be a not-so-subtle clue that she doesn’t want to wait for that engagement ring much longer. Post-breakup, a woman might post status updates that hint at a crazy social life: “Melanie is exhausted from a crazy night!” or “Jessica is having a great day,” are both the types of messages that say a lot more when they come right after a big breakup.