‘Blame Facebook for rising divorces’

May 04, 2010 |

Melbourne: British marriage counsellors claim that social networking sites like Facebook are contributing to separations and divorces.
According to the Sunday Mail, British divorce firm Divorce-Online said Facebook was cited in one-fifth of the divorce petitions it processed in 2009. It emerged that a number of bored middle-aged users in their 40s and 50s have had their lives thrown into turmoil as they try to reconnect with childhood sweethearts through the sites.
Australian Family Relationships Clearing House manager Elly Robinson said online behaviour was causing friction in households.
“People will come in (for counselling) where one partner may deny their online behaviour has been any sort of problem, but the issue is ... if it’s upsetting one of those people in the relationship, it’s a problem,” News.com.au quoted her as saying.
Robinson said the lack of research on the effect of online behaviour on relationships was surprising, considering the widespread use of social networking.
“Relationships develop more quickly online because inhibitions are lowered, it’s easy to exchange information, these days people are online 24/7, there’s an (endless) amount of people you can link up with who are there for the same reason, real life pressures fade away ... it’s a bit of a fantasy world,” Robinson said.

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