Spying on a partner’s social media account is leading to more divorces, claims a Stockport solicitors.
Almost a third of people have admitted to snooping on their partner’s social media, the Stockport-based Gorvin Solicitors revealed after seeing a rise in people getting divorced.
More than 56% of couples have experienced friction in their relationship due to posts they’ve seen on their partner’s social media platforms, the law firm claim.
One in 10 people have been unfaithful to their partner through a connection made on social media and men are more likely to do it than women.
Sally Leaman, partner and head of family at Gorvin, believes the likes of Twitter and Facebook are having a negative impact on relationships.
“With social media playing a greater role in the development and management of a relationship these days it is no surprise that it is now also featuring in its breakdown,” she said.
“Sites like Friends Reunited have certainly had an impact over the last ten years or so.
“Reconnecting with an old friend can have devastating implications for a current relationship.
“We’ve also had a number of instances where people have found out that their ex-partner is in a new relationship through their Facebook or Twitter profiles, so it continues to have an impact even after relationships have ended.”
As a result, a significant number of divorcees have cited some kind of damaging social networking activity in their divorce papers.
Men are statistically the worst offenders, with 16% admitting to being unfaithful with a social media connection.
They are also more likely to spy on their partner’s social media activity with 33% of men doing so as opposed to 28% of women.
Ms Leaman also mentioned that it was younger people who were using the technology to monitor their other halves media accounts.
“As we expected, our survey showed that it was the younger generation who were more likely to monitor their partner’s social media activity, and be unfaithful through online connections, but those aged 55 and over are also seeing the impact of social media on their relationships,” she said.
“A third of these ‘silver surfers’ said activity had caused friction between them.
“With this age group being the fastest growing adopters of social networking we expect this will only increase over time.”
Image courtesy of Powtac, with thanks.
