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Facebook a Factor in a Third of UK Divorces

Posted by Unknown on from the divorce-by-relationship-status-change dept.

hypnosec writes with an excerpt from an IT Pro Portal article: "A recent survey conducted by a UK based divorce website disclosed that 33 percent of behavior divorce petitions filed cite Facebook as a cause for filing for divorce in 2011. In 2009 this figure was 20 per cent. 5000 people were surveyed by Divorce-Online, the UK divorce website, during 2009 and 2011 covering Facebook as a means to check behavior of spouse with the opposite sex and spouses using the social networking platform to comment about their exes post the separation. Three reasons that came out on the top for listing Facebook in divorce petition were inappropriate messages sent to the opposite sex, posting nasty comments about exes, and friends on Facebook reporting about spouse's behavior."

10 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Facebook and divorce, it writes itself! by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! How many times can the same story be recycled over the course of two years?

    December 22, 2009 - Facebook's Other Top Trend of 2009: Divorce

    April 12, 2010 - Facebook to Blame for Divorce Boom

    June 28, 2010 - Facebook is divorce lawyers' new best friend

    January 19, 2011 - Divorce cases get the Facebook factor

    March 7, 2011 - Survey Shows Facebook an Increasing Factor in Divorce

    January 1, 2012 - Facebook flirting triggers divorces

    Slow news cycle? Nothing else to publish? Blame Facebook for divorce!

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
    1. Re:Facebook and divorce, it writes itself! by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! How many times can the same story be recycled over the course of two years?

      Before Facebook was created... was there analysis done to see if Telephones, The postal service, Credit cards/ATMs,Cars, Prostitution, Hotels and Mobile phones were factors in divorces?

      I suspect a lot of divorces ended due to cheating; and driving to a cheap Hotel to meet with someone...

      And yes... the car is an enabling technology, but it doesn't cause the behavior that leads to divorces; it's just a channel enabling communication (including destructive communication).

    2. Re:Facebook and divorce, it writes itself! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not facebook, per se. It's the internet. The fact is, people are more likely to cheat if there is plenty of temptation. They always think they can get away with it and that it's worth it and it's easy to be swept away by a stranger. There's excitement. There's something new. And for the biggest part of the process, it's all in the safety of your own home. It's just "my friend online - don't get jealous". Then, eventually, it's the guy or girl you met in person. And fucked. It happend long before facebook. It happened on BBSes. The first time I got laid, I was sixteen and hooked up with a twenty one year old married chick whose husband was away at basic training. We were just friends. Then we met. And were just friends. And then we met a second time a few days later. And had sex. And it was just something we did while he was still away and justified to ourselves. And then she wanted to leave him and be with me. And months later, she left me to be with another dude she met online. And this was in the early to mid 1990s. On a BBS. Where there are only a few hundred people and they're all in local calling distance. This wasn't the only such experience I've had. And I've witnessed even more of this stuff occur since the early 90s -- friends who did the cheating. Friends who were cheated on. Friends who were the guy or girl that the cheater cheated with.

      Today, you have a billion people. Everywhere and anywhere. Not only via a dialup system in your home office, but via the phone in your pocket that you can use 24x7 when nobody even knows you are using it to communicate with people. And we have photos and video and chat.

      As far as I'm concerned, it is only in the most rarest exception that someone cheating with another person online isn't just a matter of time. Given enough exposure, enough temptation, and enough time - it'll happen. Period. And it has nothing to do with "facebook".

  2. Divorce App for Facebook.... hmm by bgibby9 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shit, I'd better get into that first!

    --
    http://www.gibby.net.au
  3. Re:Cited in, not cited as the cause of. by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is supposed to be one of those dumb watercooler stories. People who don't get the internet are supposed to roll their eyes at the big, bad internet making things worse. Cheesy morning radio shows read this stories like this.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  4. I think I now may go get a facebook page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If my chances of divorce are higher having Facebook, count me in.

  5. Re:Not suprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having an affair is not a flaw. Snoring, forgetting to take out the trash, grabbing the remote too often, those are flaws. Things that you accept or overlook or compromise over. An affair, goes waaay beyond, when it comes to that, then you have nothing. No, you have less than that, you have lost years of your life to a stranger.

  6. Re:wow, what did people do before facebook? by gmhowell · · Score: 5, Funny

    it must have been much more difficult to dig dirt when people wanted to divorce without saying they wanted out :)

    My ex dug through my slashdot comments.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  7. Re:Kinda... but not really by neyla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Almost agree. Minor nitpick: The religious angle isn't of importance. There's been long-term formalised bonds between husband and wife across a wide spectrum of different religions and cultures, enough so that I'd argue that the concept of "marriage", along with "funeral", "name-giving-ceremony" and "coming-of-age-ceremony" are near-universal in human culture.

    Marriage is a formal announcement of a couples intention to stay together long-term. With this announcement comes certain duties, and certain priviledges. If you're cynical about it, you could say that you should marry if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks - I did, but religion wasn't a relevant part of that question (we're both atheists)

  8. Re:Kinda... but not really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, anthropologists have posted here before. The human race as we now know it never started being in lifelong monogamous relationships until the same time as modern agriculture started. Before that it was serial monogamy ~5 years together, just long enough for kids to fend for themselves, then off to a new relationship. Once there was something to tax, the governing bodies of the world stepped in and encouraged people to stay in relationships and have lots of kids so there would be more people to tax. Tax benefits to marriage in every society... Religions just like to incorporate everything into themselves so they can act like they are in charge.