One In Five Divorce Petitions Mention Facebook?
from the symptom,-not-cause dept
There's been plenty of anecdotal stories thrown around about how Facebook impacts relationships. You see stories of breakups exacerbated by Facebook, or jealousies created due to Facebook, but how prevalent is it really? According to one UK law firm, they went through recent divorce petitions and found around 20% of them cited Facebook in some manner. While the article goes into the ridiculousness department by suggesting this means that Facebook is "fueling" divorce (rather than recognizing it's probably just a symptom), it seems likely that if a marriage is heading for divorce anyway, it isn't that surprising that some of the evidence might come from Facebook. But that doesn't mean that the site is to blame. In fact, hidden all the way at the bottom of the article is the rather relevant fact that the divorce rate in the UK has been falling recently, just as the popularity of Facebook has shot upwards. It seems like you'd have to suggest a lot more to prove that Facebook is to blame for these divorces, rather than just an additional element in the proceedings.I also wonder if there's a bit of a generational thing going on here. I would guess that those who have grown up with Facebook probably won't be as freaked out to find out that someone is still friends with an ex-. There will always be some aspect of jealousy, of course (especially among young people), but we're reaching an era when it's no longer that strange to stay in at least some form of contact with lots of people you meet. The older you are, the more used to losing touch with people you are, and thus a reconnection seems like a bigger deal than it might be to groups of people who have remained in touch constantly.
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Filed Under: divorce, social networks
Companies: facebook
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cheater tech
yup and before technology you didnt know they were cheating did you.....
you were stupid dumb and an idiot.
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Re: cheater tech
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and divorcing because your wife/husband talks to their ex is retarded. I know many people who are even friends with their spouse's ex. It isn't that amazing. People need to chill out sometimes.
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Thank God...
Isn't that the truth, particularly the distinction of being young. One of the most pleasurable aspects of now being in my late 20's is all the stupid little things I no longer have to worry about because I'm not a young fool, but an adult slightly less fool. No more worrying about who my girl is friends with. She wants to go out on her own for a night? Great! I've got stuff to do as well.
Having said all that, isn't this simply another aspect of medium fright? As in, younger people use Facebook today the way that an older generation used, oh, say the bar or dance club? It'd be interesting to gauge the decline of the use of the words "bar" or "club" in these divorces and how that decline correlates with the use of Facebook...
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Re: Thank God...
ditto ... its more than likely they have the numbers correct but drew the wrong conclusion. Its probably a symptom of other problems and not the actually cause. In all actuallity facebook is probably replacing bars and other hook up methods when things go wrong with the relationship.
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I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that Facebook is "fueling" divorce. Facebook and the Internet as a whole has changed our lives by making information much more available to us. This information sometimes happens to include evidence of inappropriate behavior by our loved ones. We can admit when more information has a positive impact, so why can't we admit when more information has a negative impact?
Note that I'm not suggesting that Facebook is to blame for divorce. "Blame" is a judgement word that is almost always irrelevant in these kinds of discussions. However, the Internet does have an effect on our lives. It may take a while for people to adjust to the new social landscape brought about by the Internet -- i.e., there might be a spike of people "blaming" Facebook for their divirce -- but why is it ridiculous to suggest that Facebook has uncovered information that would have previously remained hidden and that this has an effect on divorce?
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But the point is certainly that there is definitely a lot of interesting stuff to learn - if someone would do a genuine, non-sensationalist study of Facebook's impact on relationships without diving straight into the blame-game.
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For instance, there is a strong correlation between a person's annual salary and rate of heart attacks. Does more money cause heart attacks? No, obviously not. Both salary and rate of heart attacks tend to increase with age and higher salaries often indicate higher stress levels. Strong correlation, but not causation.
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She likes Facebook, I'm a myspace-kind-of-guy.
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She likes Facebook, I'm a myspace-kind-of-guy.
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One In Five Divorce Petitions Mention Facebook?
Makes you wonder if it's just the technology that's changed and not the various age-old underlying reasons for divorce. One could argue that call-waiting made cheating easier because you could take two calls instead of one... or webcams let you see your audience too instead of just hearing them....and so on. I guess what's fascinating to me is on what grounds Facebook is named as a catalyst in breaking up a marriage. Couples can break up over all sorts of technology/web-based matters--porn, MySpace, Scrabulous banter, Facebook- but isn't it, in and of itself, a false intimacy to a certain extent, even that first crush who accepts your friendship from middle school? Interesting to know what the 'betrayals' are here.
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Progressive - NOT!
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Just don't friend the chicks you bang
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Or perhaps divorce causes an increase in Facebook use?
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facebook helps save marriages
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"Yeah, I've been there too, got the t-shirt"
http://champagnedivorce.com/2010/01/yeah-i%E2%80%99ve-been-there-too-got-the-t-shirt/
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I've been very careful
Yepeeeeeee.....!
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facebook divorce
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Experts from https://gaonlinedivorce.com mention that about 25 percent of applying couples state the negative effect of social media onto their marriage.
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