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Facebook Linked To One In Five Divorces In US
An anonymous reader writes "yes, in theory if you're single, Facebook can help you meet that special someone. But for those in even the healthiest of marriages, improper use can quickly devolve into a marital disaster. A recent survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that Facebook is cited in one in five divorces in the United States. Also, more than 80 percent of divorce lawyers reported a rising number of people are using social media to engage in extramarital affairs."
Facebook Linked To One In Five Divorces In US
And how many are linked to cars (*), another tool used by those who have decided to be unfaithful?
:-)
Yet another time for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation.
(*) Hey, dumb stories demand a car analogy.
In other news:
Facebook is linked to 50% of parties. Facebook is linked to 80% of weddings. Facebook is linked to 100% of political. Facebook is linked to 65% of friendships. Facebook is linked to 90% of people liking stuff.
Parties, weddings, politics, friendships, and people liking stuff are... all linked to divorce.
The methodology is worse than that; I ran across this statistic a couple of weeks ago and tracked it down through some hellish chain of blog posts and it turns out that the way this was determined was searching a list of divorce court documents for the word "Facebook" and about 20% matched the string. Any divorce filing containing the string "Facebook" was coded as a divorce linked to Facebook.
The most encouraging thing about this is that it sort of indicates that Facebook has only infiltrated about 20% of marriages.
Once again, kiddies: Correlation does not imply causation!
Actually, at the risk of being identified as pedantic, correlation does not *automatically* imply causation. It might, however, still suggest it.
I still agree with the gist of the parent & grandparent posts' point regarding this particular story, though.