FacebooklogoDoes your partner’s activity online drive you crazy?

You’re not alone. A UK legal firm, Slater Gordon, actually did a study on how social media is affecting relationships. The firm found that “one in seven [people] said they had contemplated divorce because of their other halves activities on Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter or What’sApp.”

Slater Gordon also found some other interesting factoids that show that social media may not be the healthiest thing for our domestic partnerships. Here’s a recap below:

  • Just under half of Brits admit they secretly check their partner’s Facebook account. One in five get into fights about it.
  • Nearly 25 percent of married couples said they “had at least one argument a week,” because of social, 17 percent (17 percent!) said they fight daily over something they find online about their partner.
  • Not surprisingly, “the most common reasons for checking their partner’s social media accounts was to find out who their partner was talking to, to keep tabs on them, to check who they were out with and find out if they were telling the truth about their social life.” Or, as we like to call in the States, cyberstalking.
  • Facebook was considered the “most dangerous” social media site to relationships.
  • More than half know their partner’s log-in details: 58 percent.

Why did a law firm commission this study?

“Five years ago Facebook was rarely mentioned in the context of a marriage ending, but now it has become commonplace for clients to cite social media use, or something they discovered on social media, as a reason for divorce,” said Andrew Newbury, head of family law at Slater and Gordon, in an online statement.

“We are finding that social media is the new marriage minefield.”

Newbury adds that what is done on social, “specifically pictures and posts on Facebook, are now being routinely raised in the course of divorce proceedings.”

Wow, as if being in a relationship wasn’t hard enough, now you have to balance in another level of scrutiny. Try to keep it classy out there.

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