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The social networking site, which connects old friends and allows users to make new ones online, is being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns.Divorce lawyers claim the explosion in the popularity of websites such as Facebook and Bebo is tempting to people to cheat on their partners.
Suspicious spouses have also used the websites to find evidence of flirting and even affairs which have led to divorce.
One law firm, which specialises in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook.
Kaled.
Let's blame the Internet!
Even in the USA the proportion of married couples who use facebook is far less than 20% before you start. Facebook, twitter et al are only relevant to the small minority of people who use them. The vast majority of people have better things to do with their lives than communicate with pseudo friends whom they have never met, are never likely to meet, and when it comes down to it they don't really give a toss about.
I say irony because everyone is looking for something to blame it on. "Back in the day" this sort of thing was done on IRC and AOL chats; blame AOL and IRC. We all remember the McDonalds hot coffee law suit, blame it on Micky D (And we remember Jackie Chile's parody too . . .) People do stupid things with eBay and PayPal, when it goes sideways, of course payPal must be evil.
Facebook is a household name. It's only a natural progression that sooner or later, it's the cause of a marital breakdown (sarcasto-meter alert.) Otherwise we'd still be married and miserable. Right?
My wish for humanity in 2010: everyone take responsibility for your own c**p. HA! :-)
And the 20% does not seem far-fetched when I listen to my friends talk (constantly) about old high school boyfriends/girlfriends that keep popping up on their FB profiles.
Did anyone try to track the source of the information? I did. It's bogus.
From the BBC I found that the number was quoted by the managing director of a law firm, which happens to have the word "online" in their trade name, which would no doubt eschew the figures.
Furthermore, they promote themselves in Facebook, another reason that would bias this "finding".
So far we have a law firm that promotes themselves in facebook and that call themselves "online" claiming that "almost one in five" of divorces mention Facebook. I say they are doing a lousy job with their social networking efforts!
Lastly, the BBC opens the article with "according to research". I've scoured the law firm's website, including their frequently updated blog, and there's no mention of any "research".
So, it turns out one dude from a law firm mentioned a spurious figure off-handedly, and it made the news internationally (I'm in Spain), and even to the front page of Webmaster World!
Someone please prove me wrong and find that piece of research, so we can at least take a look at the methodology and the statistics involved!
In the USA population 308.24 million there are 94.75 million facebook members this is 30% of the entire population so it is reasonable to assume that a big majority of people between the ages of 20 and 50 (who are most likely to divorce)are members.
In the UK it is worse -36% of our entire population (61.63 million) are on facebook.
Personally I still can't see the attraction but I now realise I am the one with the minority viewpoint.
Police chief: ‘Bad guys' use Facebook, tooA “Sweet 16” birthday party Dec. 18 for two Ferndale High School girls was overrun by uninvited gang members who heard about the party on Facebook,
[hometownlife.com...]
A “Sweet 16” birthday party Dec. 18 for two Ferndale High School girls was overrun by uninvited gang members who heard about the party on Facebook
There were supposedly 200 people at the party; I doubt they needed Facebook to hear about it.
The romantic appeal of Facebook shows that people are often not looking for physical sex (not that there is anything wrong with physical sex) but for human communications. If you are in a relationship, you would be wise to remember that people need someone to talk to, someone to listen.
Alas, it's not that person on Facebook that is listening probably. It's just Facebook.
If you want to talk with your lover, send them an email. That way you can pretend they are listening to what you say. Voicemail works, too.
dont have a FB account, and dont want one.
im a rebel like that...dont hate me.
