Social Cheating: A Look at Social Media’s Influence on Infidelity

At a rapid rate, the number of couples choosing to divorce because of social media is growing and doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  While social media can be used in a good way to connect people all over the world, it can also be used in a bad way when connecting the wrong people. For example, your ex tries to “friend request” you and innocently starts messaging you, that can lead to flirtatious messaging and very well could be the beginning of an emotional affair.

With the number of affairs arising from social media, this issue is becoming a major challenge for lawyers in court.  According to NerdGraph.com, “81% of members from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported using or confronting information pulled from Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and various other social networking sites.”

• 66% of that statistic was from Facebook, while 15% was from Myspace and 5% from Twitter.
• “27% of wives use electronic information during a divorce case as opposed to only 5% of husbands.”
• For example, a woman’s husband may have logged onto Match.com and presented that he is single and has no kids, while at the same time he is fighting for custody for the kid he claims he does not have. 
• “1 in 5 adults use Facebook for flirting.”

According to NerdGraph.com, men with performance anxiety or are more easily around are more liking to cheat, while women will cheat more when they are not sexually satisfied. The top Facebook evidences that are used in divorce court are: messages to a person of the opposite sex that are inappropriate, a Facebook friend reporting a spouse’s shady behavior, and both spouses using Facebook to attack each other.

To avoid a social network divorce use common sense. Reconnect without doing something that you may regret, don’t keep secretes from your spouse, keep your social network friends at arm’s length, and don’t hesitate to shut it all down. “While social media can be a fun place to reconnect with old friends and keep up with new and current ones, it can also play a deadly role in a marriage. With so many people online and connecting in new ways, it’s hard to predict just how far this problem with go before it’s routed.”