Lawyers Say Facebook a Growing Factor in Divorce

A lot of reasons push people to decide to leave their partners. Infidelity, abuse, and lies are some of the most popular, yet this list goes on and on since every couple is unique and no relationships are the same.

Besides grounds for divorce that cause people to split up, some factors lead eventually to two people breaking up. One of such factors is social media sites that have become an integral part of our lives. In this post, we’ll take a look at the way Facebook affects our personal life and our decision to get divorced. We’ll also try to find out what can be done with it and how to decrease the divorce rates.

How does Facebook affect relationships?

You may not notice it, but Facebook has a big impact on marriages and happy family life. Below, we mention the most widespread links between this social media site and break-ups.

A lot of time is wasted online

First of all, today people spend a lot of time on Facebook and other social media platforms. As reported by Forbes magazine, Americans hang out on Facebook for over 1,300 hours a year. It equals 58 minutes per day. Wouldn’t you say it’s too much?

With the beginning of the quarantine all over the world in 2020, people started to spend even more time on social media. Since people couldn’t have quality time with each other, they distanced themselves from their partners with the smartphones in their hands. Thus, more and more marriages failed and ended in the last two years. Facebook and divorce statistics say that every year the Facebook audience is growing by 20%, and divorce rates connected to it increase from 2.18% to 4.32%. As you can see, Facebook has a direct impact on split-ups.

Social media triggers suspicion

Another way Facebook interferes with our personal life is by nourishing our fears and suspicions. Young women and men tend to spy on their partners online once they add each other to their friends’ lists. It gets even more scale when some problems in relationships arise: one of the partners starts to check every single move of their loved one on the web, including likes, comments, and new friends. As a result, they start seeing infidelity where there is none, and it causes more tension in relationships. Oftentimes, suspicions regarding online life lead to divorce. Can we say that Facebook has any positive influence on our marital life? Hardly so.

Facebook causes divorce through online affairs

Another negative impact that Facebook does is contributing to real cheating. With the rise of social media websites, users got a chance to communicate with people they wouldn’t meet otherwise. There is no surprise that people develop feelings for each other online and start forgetting about their partners.

Virtual sex and relationships have already become a new way to cheat on one’s spouses, which caused thousands of divorces all over the world. It is also one of the most popular reasons for online divorce in New York. Getting a new partner online seems to be easier than facing issues in your offline relationships and trying to work them out with your partner. Sad but true.

New relationships start on social media

The only positive impact that Facebook may have on one’s personal life is that you can find a new partner here faster after a divorce. Oftentimes, it saves divorcees from anxiety, depression, and feeling of misery after a break-up: they meet new people and notice that they are still interesting and valuable to the opposite sex.

What else about Facebook's role in a divorce?

A thing that many couples miss during a divorce process is that their Facebook pages say a lot about them during the discovery of their cases. Judges and lawyers pay close attention to what the couples in litigation are posting. Through their feeds and updates, they can guess the level of life of each partner, their habits (including potential alcohol or drug abuse), lifestyle, etc. Therefore, you need to think twice before making any details of your life public.

To decrease the impact of Facebook on your marriage dissolution procedure, we suggest that you stop updating your page at all. Say no to check-ins, party pictures, and tags of your name on your friends’ posts. It may cost you alimony, kids’ custody, and support from your wife or husband if you are demanding them in court.

All in all, Facebook and other social media apps are not the best friends of people who want to live happy personal lives. The more you hang out on Facebook, the less time you dedicate to your loved ones, social media, and divorce rates statistics reports.