According to a recent survey of 5,000 divorce petitions conducted by U.K. blog Divorce-Online, approximately 33 percent of divorce petitions within the United Kingdom contained the word “Facebook” and indicated that the opposing party in the divorce utilized Facebook in a manner that was destructive to the relationship. This is a sharp increase from 2009 when only one in five petitions mentioned the social network as an issue. The most common reasons that Facebook appeared in the petitions included inappropriate Facebook messages, potentially sexual in nature, that were sent to members of the opposite sex, spouses undergoing a trial separation that posted nasty comments to each other, and Facebook friends that reported a cheating spouse’s behavior to the other party in the relationship.
According to the managing director of Divorce-Online Mark Keenan, he stated “Facebook has become the primary method for communicating with friends for many people. People contact ex-partners and the messages start as innocent, but lead to trouble. If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then it’s the easiest place to do it.” With the mention of Facebook in approximately 1,650 divorce petitions in the United Kingdom, it’s clear that the growth of the social network has had an increasingly negative effect on troubled marriages over the last two years. The people conducting the study also searched for the work “Twitter” in the divorce petitions, but only 20 out of 5,000 petitions mentioned the competing social network.
According to a similar study conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers during 2010, over 80 percent of members have used social networking evidence during a divorce case. Facebook was the most commonly sited as a resource for evidence of infidelity with approximately two thirds of members claiming to use Facebook to gather dirt on spouses. Other sources included MySpace, Twitter and other unnamed, miscellaneous social networking sites.
I’ve had people try to chat me up on FB in a way that I thought was borderline cheating on their spouse. When things like this happen, I make myself totally unavailable. The Golden Rule applies here too, guys. My Ex did this before FB with a woman he met in Japan, via email.
In other words…cheating is cheating. If you have problems with your S.O., at least try to resolve the problems before you give up on the relationship
Facebook really is a homewrecker. I know first hand.
I can well imagine why. Apart from the grey area online flirting for example creates in a relationship its the amoint of time spent online with others that means the real partner or spouse gets left out of the online conversation and above all get neglected. Facebook itself is not to blame but how its use can perpetuate cracks that are already present in a relationship. Same goes for how cell phones etc are used eg sms twitter MXIT etc. In olden days it was fishing or TV
lol, lol…shame…lmfao
So…basically, Facebook does a service by bringing everything out in the open sooner rather than later. Wanna know if you’re married to a douche? No sweat. Let FB do the dirty work for you.
@Digital Trends: It is a vehicle for cheating, but not the only one. I don’t think anyone has been “blaming” Facebook per se.
So…basically, Facebook does a service by bringing everything out in the open sooner rather than later. Wanna know if you’re married to a douche? No sweat. Let FB do the dirty work for you.
Bunch of idiots, Facebook is just the evolution of comunication.
Not only in the U.K. :truestory:
The trouble is that socializing on FB doesn’t seem like cheating to a lot of people. If you have trouble in your marriage, spending a lot of time online talking to someone else certainly IS cheating, even if there is no sex involved *yet.* Going out to dinner with someone of the opposite sex is cheating, too, but that is happening in the real world and is often taken more seriously by the people involved.
Facebook isn’t the problem. Anyone who says it is must be looking to point the finger anywhere but at themselves and their spouses or ex-spouses. Facebook is simply an internet site. If YOU or your loved one utilizes it to cheat…blame them and not Facebook. Obviously there were known or unknown problems in the relationship to begin with.