Facebook is still the IT thing; it’s connected to everything from movies to surveys, research and statistics, including one that says one in five divorces involves some mention of Facebook. As the article stated, http://www.wopular.com/survey-facebook-related-divorces-rise, Facebook is used for verbal attacks against the ex-spouse, to connect with past love or new interests or as a snooping tool to point out a spouse’s bad behavior. Yet, the use of the internet as a cheating and stalking mechanism isn’t new information. Prior to Facebook, people have been using the internet as a source to seek out individuals through other websites, dating sites and friends. All Facebook is doing is making all that happen in one place, and garnering a lot of free publicity for its easy data access and information validation.
According to Facebook, they have 800 million users, of which 25% are in the US. That means there are about 200 million users on Facebook in the US. (This figure does not tell you how many unique individuals that is, but it does tell you that there are a lot of individuals.) So, the chances of you bumping into past loves and old acquaintances increase significantly. And, being human, resistance is often futile. We then know the consequences of temptation and having access to Pandora’s Box.
Linking the internet to cheating, affairs and back-stabbing behavior doesn’t provide any enlightening information. What would be interesting to note is if Facebook has caused the total number of divorces to increase in the past year or year(s), after removing other divorce factors, such as compatibility, general infidelity tendencies regardless of any outside factors, economic and financial conditions. Another fascinating Facebook study would be whether or not it decreased human contact, increased the need to detail mundane daily activities, and reduced human etiquettes and manners.
