Facebook Linked To One In Five Divorces In US 292
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."
What percentage use FB again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Saying that divorces are linked to Facebook is like saying car purchases are linked to internet usage.
It's just a part of peoples lives (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a common way for people to communicate. Facebook is going to be "linked to" everything as long as this is a fact.
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.
And this is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be willing to bet that the use of the telephone (one of the greatest social inventions of all time) is linked to just about 100% of all divorces, as well.
What is it with everyone trying to blame Facebook and Craigslist for all the ills of the world? They are tools, and nothing more. But they are new, and so I guess that makes them suspicious, doesn't it?
It's not facebook's fault you're a jerk (Score:5, Insightful)
Outside influences (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't people at some point stop blaming outside influences for their own failings ?
I'm happily married. I'm a hardcore gamer, who spend a lot of time online. My wife hates computer games. We make it work fine.
My daughter owns a notebook, spends a lot of time online. I don't have any kind of "network nanny" on her computer. So far, she hasn't committed mass murder in her school.
Go be a husband/wife and a parent. Stop blaming outside influences, computers, games, TV etc for your own failings. Own up to it.
Facebook don't force people to commit adultery. Videogames don't brainwash kids to murder other people. Deal with it.
Re:It's just a part of peoples lives (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing is more linked with divorce than anything else, marriage. 100% of divorces are caused by marriage.
Re:And this is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd have thought people interested in technology would be interested in examining how that technology interacts in the real world. I mean, you don't find it interesting that social media is so widely implicated and in what that implies for it's impact on society and the changes as the wired generation reaches adulthood? The positive effects of social media on the current Jasmine Revolution(s) are widely examined and praised here on Slashdot, one would think that the negative effects would be equally interesting.
Re:It's just a part of peoples lives (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What percentage use FB again? (Score:4, Insightful)
A better analogy is that divorces are linked to facebook in the same way divorces are linked to the telephone, or to strip clubs.
Re:It's just a part of peoples lives (Score:5, Insightful)
Marriage is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for divorce. Many (even a majority of) people who get married do not divorce.
If the statistic is thrown around that 50% of marriages end in divorce, consider the many serial divorces, and realize that many people get married once and stay that way, to balance the numbers.
Take a sample of three people: Joe, John and James.
If Joe gets married and divorced three times, and John gets married once, and James gets married once, then five marriages have occurred, but three divorces. 60% divorce rate. But only 33% of that group got divorced.