Forget the gays...they have nothing on Facebook, apparently! Maybe the evangelicals should start going after Mark Zuckerberg, instead! (I’m sure he’s in Leviticus, somewhere!)
But in all seriousness, according to a U.K. survey conducted by Divorce Online (a legal services firm), apparently more than one third of divorces that were filed in 2011 contained the word “Facebook.” Even more interestingly, 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys state that they have seen a rise in the number of clients that claim social networking had a part to play in the demise of their marriages.
Gary Traystman, a Connecticut divorce attorney, stated that “I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time.” 60% of the cases he took on last year that involve computer history, texts and emails that were admitted as evidence exclusively involved Facebook.
In fact, author K. Jason Krafsky, who co-wrote Facebook and Your Marriage, with his wife, Kelli, thinks that, “affairs happen with a lightning speed of Facebook...On Facebook, they happen in just a few clicks.” He believes part of the problem lies in the fact that you can connect with old flames and allows people to “friend” someone that they may have only casually. “It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair,” he states.
While Facebook declined to comment, I believe they are not the destroyer of marriage. Humans make choices. Good ones, bad ones, but they are our choices. This culture has become the BBD culture (Bigger, Better Deal). We are always looking around the corner, thinking that the grass is greener over there, instead of nurturing and cultivating our own relationships that we have right in front of us.
When you decide to friend your ex-girlfriend, or invite that hot guy you met at a bar to your birthday party celebration via-Facebook, you are inevitably going to create drama in your own life. And who’s fault is that? We may want to blame Facebook or other social media sites for bringing temptation to the door, but when it knocks, we choose to answer.
Plus, let’s remember no one is forcing anyone to have a social media account or a Facebook account. You can also easily deny friend requests or block people. So, if you really didn’t want to see what your ex-lover was up to, you can make that happen.
Then again, curiosity killed the cat...and humans are notoriously curious creatures!
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twoday magazine wants to know: Has Facebook negatively impacted your relationships? Share with us (ironically!) on our Facebook page.
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I hate facebook, but I have to agree with you- its still our choices that lead to our complications.
But I will say facebook certainly facilitates our ability to screw up our lives. Its kind of like murder: it has always existed in humans but with the invention of firearms it gets a little easier to commit.