Kamille Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 Well it's confirmed. Social media is having an impact relationships. I thought this tidbit of information was interesting, especially for people involved in life partnerships. http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/03/04/facebook-divorce.html Citations: Typically, people enter into online relationships with the most innocent of intentions, said Kimmons, whose practice includes couples therapy and marriage counselling. "I don't think these people typically set out to have affairs. A lot of it is curiosity. They see an old friend or someone they dated and decide to say 'hello' and catch up on where that person is and how they're doing." There are safeguards to prevent online contacts from ruining their relationships, he said. One is not to engage in intimate conversation with someone who is not your spouse. Another is for couples to share passwords with each other and place the computer in a common area in the house or apartment. "It's not that people are going to read what you're writing, but they'll see what you're doing," he said. "Then it's not a secret."
jerbear Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 So in other words, if 50% of marriages end up in divorce. 20% of all marriages (100%) cite Facebook, then Facebook is responsible for 10% of all divorces?
denise_xo Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 There was a thread on this in the divorce section a little while ago. My own take is that facebook isn't 'responsible' for anything - it's just a new medium that facilitates people's infidelity. http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t262036/
Duckduckgoose Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 Just because you have FB or some sort of other social medium doesn't make you likely to cheat. A cheater's mind will find the way to cheat with or without FB. If not with an old flame, then with an attractive co-worker or cute barista that makes their coffee every morning.
Author Kamille Posted March 6, 2011 Author Posted March 6, 2011 There was a thread on this in the divorce section a little while ago. My own take is that facebook isn't 'responsible' for anything - it's just a new medium that facilitates people's infidelity. http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t262036/ I would tend to agree. I was looking at marriage statistics for the U.S. Fewer people are getting married. However, the divorce rate is decreasing. Allegedly, it is now below the 50% mark. I would say these two facts put together just mean that FB merely figures in contemporary break-ups. I still wonder, however, if infidelity is on the rise because of social media, meaning, does it give more people who aren't happy in their marriage the ability to cheat.
denise_xo Posted March 6, 2011 Posted March 6, 2011 I still wonder, however, if infidelity is on the rise because of social media, meaning, does it give more people who aren't happy in their marriage the ability to cheat. This is speculation on my part, but here are two factors that I think make a real difference: - Divorce is 'thinkable' today in a very different way than only thirty or fifty years ago. Even when my parents divorced in the early 80s it was a bit 'novel'. Before that you don't have to go far back to get to a time when it was 'shameful' and frowned upon in a very different way than today. I realise it's a bit of a tautological argument, but there is a sense in which divorce (whether a result of infidelity or not) is happening much more simply because it's possible. Hence, the repercussions of having an affair are somewhat different than they were fifty years ago - and they are also framed in different ways. - Rather than FB in particular, I think increased mobility (online and IRL) plays a factor. In general, we just encounter so many more people throughout a lifetime than what the majority used to do, say, fifty years ago - we change jobs more frequently, move more, travel more, AND meet and re-connect with more people online. In some ways, that's more potential for infidelity. I don't think the consequences of that have been fully understood yet, not only with regard to relationship dynamics but also in terms of how we view our lives more broadly and how we ourselves develop.
ladydi721 Posted March 7, 2011 Posted March 7, 2011 even though people will cheat regardless & they were cheating well before facebook came around, facebook is just another tool that unfaithful people use to cheat. but if facebook wasn't around they would find another outlet to do it because it's just in them to do it.
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