Him: “Are you unhappy?” Her: “No, of course not. Why do you ask?” Him: “Well, the few rare times we make love you cry out his name, not mine.” Her: “Who’s name?” Him: “Facebook.”
Yeah, pretty heavy huh? Real life stuff pouring out all over the pages of Gizmodo. But what’s it mean?
It means Facebook ends marriages, that’s what it means. An astonishing 80% of U.S. divorce lawyers report that social media evidence is now cited in divorce cases as one of the many reasons a marriage comes crashing to an end. One in five doomed married couples cite Facebook by name in their divorce proceedings, according to a recent survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
While the high number is surprising (“staggering” says the Daily Mail), the behaviour it entails is nothing new:
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.
Anyway…80%! That’s awful! Completely awful. Heart-wrenching, even. But I understand, and if any of my Facebook lady friends, college flames or high school crushes need to talk, my email’s down there at the bottom of the post. [Daily Mail]
Mike
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 12:29 PMThat’s 80% of divorce lawyers say social media is cited in divorce proceedings. As it’s unlikely 100% of these lawyers cases involve social media (especially since 20% of lawyers have no report of it’s involvement), this does not represent 80% of divorce proceedings in total.
Something like 10 or 20% is probably more realistic.
Mark
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 5:11 PM80% of all statistics are made up. The other 30% are untrue.
olearymo
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 5:51 PM‘Whose’ name.