The Facebook Divorce

Facebook may let you reconnect with old friends, but for increasingly many, the social network website leads to the breakups of marriages: a staggering 1 in 5 American divorces involve Facebook as evidence of cheating.

A staggering 80 per cent of divorce lawyers have also reported a spike in the number of cases that use social media for evidence of cheating.
Flirty messages and photographs found on Facebook are increasingly being cited as proof of unreasonable behaviour or irreconcilable differences. Many cases revolve around social media users who get back in touch with old flames they hadn’t heard from in many years.
Facebook was by far the biggest offender, with 66 per cent of lawyers citing it as the primary source of evidence in a divorce case. MySpace followed with 15 per cent, Twitter at 5 per cent and other choices lumped together at 14 per cent.

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I think it definitely sparks fires where none would have sparked. I often have old friends/girlfriends that will message me out of the blue either just saying hi or letting me know they'll be in town. Stuff that never would have happened without facebook.

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yep, biggest breakup of my life was instigated by my SO bragging to her friend about a particular week we spent apart, and a nosy friend of mine happening upon that message.

i still dont know if that was the best or the worst thing that could have happened, since the infidelities were well over 6 months past and we were in a really good place. sigh. probably for the best.

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A sad fact. My wife of 25 yrs. Found her old BF and they hooked up twice with in a four month period (he's out of town). To many variables to go into it. But forgivness is a hard thing to do. If the cheater is sorry and wants to fix the marrage then give it a shot. If cheating is persistant between the one or two of you. Then go your seperate ways.

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It's an easy way to indulge those old "what if" thoughts. Though I'm in touch with several ex-girlfriends on Facebook, it's the now married women who long ago I only dated briefly or was only friends with that put out the feelers looking for something outside their relationship. I guess for those who feel like their marriage is stuck in a rut, Facebook's connections to the past are just too much of a temptation to resist.