The number of British divorces involving Facebook in some way, shape or form is on the up.
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As technology progresses, the way we communicate with one and other changes and evolves. The advent of social networking has meant falling out of touch with old school mates, friends from our hometowns and coworkers has become less common. However, it seems social networking is also having an adverse affect on some marriages.
According to a study from Divorce-Online, Facebook is now being mentioned in one third of British petitions for divorce because of unreasonable behaviour. The study was a follow-up to a survey carried out in December 2009, when the divorce blog discovered that 20 percent, or one fifth, of petitions for unreasonable behaviour contained the word 'Facebook.' In December of 2011, Divorce-Online conducted the same study, using the same sample size of 5,000 behaviour petitions, and found that this 20 percent had risen to 33 percent.
"Social networking has become the primary tool for communication and is taking over from text and e-mail in my opinion," said Mark Keenan, a spokesman for Divorce-Online. "If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then [Facebook is] the easiest place to do it. Also the use of Facebook to make comments about ex partners to friends has become extremely common with both sides using Facebook to vent their grievances against each other," he continued. "People need to be careful what they write on their walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence."
The top three reasons where Facebook appeared in behaviour petitions were:
1) Inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex.
2) Separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other.
3) Facebook friends reporting spouse's behaviour.
Interestingly, while Facebook seems to appear in rather a lot of petitions for divorce, Twitter was only found in 20 of the 5,000 petitions.
As technology progresses, the way we communicate with one and other changes and evolves. The advent of social networking has meant falling out of touch with old school mates, friends from our hometowns and coworkers has become less common. However, it seems social networking is also having an adverse affect on some marriages.
According to a study from Divorce-Online, Facebook is now being mentioned in one third of British petitions for divorce because of unreasonable behaviour. The study was a follow-up to a survey carried out in December 2009, when the divorce blog discovered that 20 percent, or one fifth, of petitions for unreasonable behaviour contained the word 'Facebook.' In December of 2011, Divorce-Online conducted the same study, using the same sample size of 5,000 behaviour petitions, and found that this 20 percent had risen to 33 percent.
"Social networking has become the primary tool for communication and is taking over from text and e-mail in my opinion," said Mark Keenan, a spokesman for Divorce-Online. "If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then [Facebook is] the easiest place to do it. Also the use of Facebook to make comments about ex partners to friends has become extremely common with both sides using Facebook to vent their grievances against each other," he continued. "People need to be careful what they write on their walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence."
The top three reasons where Facebook appeared in behaviour petitions were:
1) Inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex.
2) Separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other.
3) Facebook friends reporting spouse's behaviour.
Interestingly, while Facebook seems to appear in rather a lot of petitions for divorce, Twitter was only found in 20 of the 5,000 petitions.
