Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his status to “married” Saturday and received over one million “likes” from his followers. But the site he founded isn’t always so marriage-friendly. In fact, lawyers say the social network contributes to an increasing number of marriage breakups.
More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they’ve seen a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time,” says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.
No. People wreck marriages.
People wreck marriages faster and more efficiently with Facebook.
Facebook’s actually made one marriage that I know of. My sister was divorced. An old college boyfriend of hers who was also divorced tracked her down on Facebook, I guess the two of them went back and forth online, they got back together for real and eventually got married. That invitation was one of the shocks of my life.