Social Media’s Role in Divorce

It’s perfectly normal for a couple to get married with dreams of a happy life together. But many marriages end in divorce — the standard wisdom is that every year, 2% of all existing Michigan marriages end. But while the number of divorces has remained remarkably steady since the 80s, the reasons divorces happen have change.

According to a recent study by Slater and Gordon Lawyers (a British firm), one in every seven married Brits surveyed said that their spouse used social media in a way that could lead them to file for divorce — while one in four said that they argue with their spouse at least once a week about their use of social media. 17% said those arguments occur daily. And a startling number of respondents admitted that they knew their partner’s social media passwords without having been told, and used those passwords to ‘check up’ on their partners occasionally.

If that’s not enough, researchers at Boston University drew on nationwide data here in the U.S. to prove a strong correlation between per-capita Facebook accounts (by state) and divorce rates (also by state.) They also used data from a 2012 survey about Facebook use and marriage quality to establish a strong correlation between less Facebook use and more marriage quality.

And, just to round out the evidence, a study by Censuswide shows that, across America, social media use is “a prominent factor” in 1 out of 7 divorce cases.

Be Careful with Social Media

But of course that’s just the “before” picture — before divorce is filed. What about the impacts of social media on the divorce case itself? The reality is contrary to what many intuitively believe: the actions you take on the social media are exactly as real as the ones you take in real life. If you flirt with someone on Facebook, you are flirting with that person. The fact that you can’t take it any further than words on the screen doesn’t matter in any way in a courtroom. The judge and jury will treat you exactly like you had flirted with someone…because you have.

Similarly, if you take pictures of yourself (or let anyone else take pictures of you) doing anything, you should be aware of the fact that someone, somewhere, will post those pictures online, and someone, somewhere, will tag you in those pictures. Being snapped on vacation in Las Vegas isn’t a great way to succeed at arguing in front of a judge that you’re too busy to see your children. A shot of you in sweet new fedora, smoking a cigar and leaning on your new car isn’t going to do you any good when you try to explain to the court that you don’t have the money to pay your child support.

And of course, when you set your Facebook status to “Single, but looking” before you’ve filed for divorce — or, heaven forbid, you “Like” Ashley Madison or something similar — you’re giving your spouse everything they need to lean the court hard in their favor.

Remember: Facebook owns all of the data on Facebook. You don’t have any right to those pictures, words, or Likes. And Facebook saves everything, and they will unhesitatingly provide any relevant information to the court upon the delivery of an order to do so.