Social Media Playing a Large Role in Divorce

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace have increased their popularity in the recent years. Many people have the opportunity to reconnect with some old friends, co-workers and lovers online. These types of sites also give users the ability to make plenty of new friends online. As a result, many spouses have spent a lot of time on computers – especially of a marriage is already on the rocks.

If a spouse spends most of his time online, it will not only take his time away from the family, but it can also arouse suspicion of an affair. Even if there’s no physical cheating, many people become so wrapped up in online that it can cause damages to relationship and it may lead to a filing of divorce.

Some spouses don’t slip into online affairs by accident. There is no shortage of online dating sites, some even geared towards married people looking for no strings attached affairs. When a married person is conducting this kind of activity online, they often attempt to cover their tracks by deleting the browser history of their computer after using or protect it with passwords to keep out the prying eyes of a spouse.

Here’s a story:

There’s a couple, let’s name them Charles and Kate, that their ending of their marriage began on Facebook when his wife, Kate became “friends” with an ex.

“When that happened I really wasn’t too put off by it. I fairly trust my wife. I choose to go through life not constantly worrying about what might or might not happen,” Charles said.
What happened was his wife and her ex ended up reconnecting.

“I suggest counselling, I suggested trying to find new things,” Charles said. “She didn’t have any interest in that.”

So Charles’ next stop was to find a lawyer to help their relationship remain the same. Let’s name the lawyer Lisa.

Lisa said, “It has dramatically changed things. I’m shocked every time I look at it. People put in there how often they go to the bathroom, when they’re having sex with somebody. I can’t understand why anyone would want someone else to be reading information like that.”
Social media is also making its way into the courtroom. A status update or a tweet can be the high-tech equivalent of a lipstick on the collar.

According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 81 percent of the nation’s top divorce attorneys say that they’ve seen an increase in number of causes using social networking evidence.

Everyone enjoys spending time on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc without knowing that for some people, it can be the cause of destroying a married couple. It's not just one or two cases of using social media as the source of divorce but it's already been many cases and with more new social sites, more of these could actually happen.

References:
Social Media Playing a Large Role in Divorce Cases
Social Media and Online Affairs