Facebook is the cause of 20% of today’s divorces.
I have heard this figure a few times and while I cannot
confirm or deny this statistic it does make you think. Social Media is amazing,
without it for some, life would not be the same, and others wouldn’t see a
change. I am a user of various forms but can easily go without it for days or
weeks at a time. Others are obsessed and fail to continue to live without
checking Facebook hourly to find out what is going on in the world. Obsession,
is not the worst thing that Social Media does to people.
If the figure mentioned at the start of this blog entry is even
loosely close to the mark, Facebook is a curse. Myself, I doubt and cannot
fathom how Facebook can even be considered a cause of anybody’s divorce.
Facebook itself is not sending saucy messages to inappropriate people, it is
the user. Facebook is an excuse. I live in the country and found out that a co-worker
of mine has become divorced because of Facebook. As a reaction he has ‘encouraged’
his teenage daughter to delete her account. While it is a sad and unfortunate
tale, Facebook cannot be blamed. The marriage must have been in a situation
that allowed for her to move on.
This unfortunately is not an uncommon story.
While divorce is the extreme in failed relationships there
are others which also end with Facebook being a catalyst. Catfish, a popular
MTV TV series, follows the investigation and first meeting between two people
that have had a relationship online and have failed to meet. In most cases the ‘Catfish’ is
not who they said they were, hence not meeting in the past. It is a sad and
unsettling trend that meeting somebody online can be so dubious, and those who
seek a partner and decide to follow the online route may be dragged through a
long emotional journey fuelled by lies and deception for the other person’s
gain.
Again however, Facebook or any other form of social media
that is used to grow these relationships cannot be blamed and it is the users
of these platforms taking advantage of others that are the real dark side of
social media.
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