Twitter and Facebook increasingly being cited in divorce papers

Why anyone is surprised by this tidbit of information is beyond me but it seems that a growing number of people are implicating social media services like Facebook and Twitter as part of the reason for their divorces.

According to a new study from Divorce Online the numbers are on the increase with Facebook being cited in 33% of “unreasonable behavior petitions” in 2011 which represents a rise of 13% over the service’s previous figures from 2009.

They arrived at this number by surveying a sample of 5,000 divorces where Facebook behavior with the opposite sex played an integral part of the divorce claims.

The top three reasons were:

1 – Inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex

2 – Separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other

3 – Facebook friends reporting spouse’s behavior

Divorce Online’s spokesman had this to say about the numbers:

“Social networking has become the primary tool for communication and is taking over from text and e-mail in my opinion. If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then it’s the easiest place to do it. Also, the use of Facebook to make comments about ex-partners to friends has become extremely common with both sides using Facebook to vent their grievances against each other. People need to be careful what they write on their Walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence.”

via The Next Web

Don’t think that Twitter escaped being a scapegoat though as it showed up in 20 petitions also as part of spouse’s behavior as a reason for the divorce.