6 Ways How Social Media and Divorce are Connected

Researchers are now trying to find out how many marriages has Facebook destroyed or the number of couples who are part of the phenomenon of WhatsApp divorce in India and delving into questions like ‘What percent of divorces are caused by Facebook?’ or ‘Is social media bad for marriage?’ So we break down the reasons why Social Media causes divorce.

# Causes unnecessary drama

Spouses can constantly stalk and check the social media posts and sometimes may not agree with some. This leads to undue strife among the couple. Sometimes what one party may post, including pictures or comments, can also end up embarrassing the other and infringe on your better half’s social boundaries. People end up snooping, connecting to exes or past flames or new crushes thereby moving away from their partners in real life.

# Sets unrealistic expectations from spouses

Social media also puts a lot of pressure on modern Indian couples to appear ‘perfect’ and ‘loved up’ constantly in posts and photos. Many a time people tend to compare their marriage to a peer or a complete stranger simply because they choose to put up posts and photos of a ‘picture-perfect marriage’.

# Communication Gap

More social media use leads to less ‘we time’ and partners end up losing real-time connection with one another, thereby killing real conversations with each other. A constant refrain among married couples today is: “He/She is always on Facebook” or “You are always on social media”.

# Facebook creating strife

Facebook has become a prime source of jealousy and danger for couple fights as people reconnect with old or new flames and carry on double lives unknown to their spouse.

Keeping their new relationship a secret makes people spend long hours on social media which creates jealousy and mistrust in the marriage. One partner constantly feels ignored by the other, who is busy replacing the spouse with social media or someone he/she met through that.

# Less privacy

Today nobody is really safe from the ever prying eyes of social media apps who glean a lot of information through permissions etc. Strangers and people with bad intentions have access to your personal information and life moments. How they use this could be harmful to you and your marriage. With privacy options changing daily on social media and being hard to access, your posts are viewed by hundreds of strangers thereby giving away information on your relationships, photos, posts, location, work profile etc.

# Keeping up with the Joneses

Many people, who use social media, end up feeling depressed when they see posts/photos where a different reality from their own is projected by others. This can also hamper interpersonal relationships between a married couple by causing jealousy, arguments, comparisons, competition and depression.