Social Media and Divorce

Some may think, what’s the relation between social media and divorce? They’re not on the same line. According to CNN’s Alison Kosik, social networking sites are increasingly becoming one of the factors in deteriorating marriages. Surprisingly, 1 out of 5 divorce cases reference Facebook as the root cause of their problems. It may sound shocking, but with all the social medias we have, anything is quite possible.

In this entry, I researched on how social media can affect a relationship and many results have shown that it can really be a source of many problems causing couples to break up.

For web developer Kyle Simpson, social media became a part of his everyday life. He uses Twitter and Facebook all the time, at around 20-30 times a day constantly checking for updates and communicating with other people. His wife, Christen, is also an avid Facebook and Twitter user, both of them said that they won’t let those sites cause problems in their relationship. They try to keep it open between the two of them. They both have Facebook accounts and each other’s password.

Not everyone is like Kyle and Christen who has an open relationship. There are many couples out there who don’t act like married people and still uses networking sites to flirt or meet new people and this can certainly destroy a relationship. Imagine your wife or husband looking for new friends on web, of course you will not feel calm and let him or her continue doing it.

Unfortunately for some couples, social media can lead to break up, because it is where they find out that there’s a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Sometimes it can even be related to child issues. If someone says he or she is a responsible parent and then you find out the night that they were supposed to take care of their child and instead they get a babysitter and they were out and there’s photos of them drinking with friends, this will definitely not look good in court.

Facebook messages and photos can usually become evidence to divorce cases. One may think that something is deleted, but it’s usually not. With all these new networking sites popping out almost every year, there are no doubts that it can be a possible reason why couples get separated.

According to a study conducted in 2009, more than 80% of the attorneys whose handling divorce cases have seen an increase in the number of cases using social networking as evidences.

“While we don’t know if that increasing divorce rate has anything to do with social media, those in a relationship might want to think twice before they log on, and post anything that could be used against them in the future.”

Social media has become one of the reasons on why married couples divorce. I will post one more story regarding social media and how it played a role in divorce cases on my next blog.

Reference:
Special Report: Social Media and Divorce