New Year New You €“ The 30 Day Digital Detox Challenge

In the era of the ‘selfie’ more and more people are posting, following, tweeting and boasting, and it feels as though social media, in all its forms is encroaching on every aspect of our lives.

Social media is connecting the world closer and closer together and as divorce lawyers, we are seeing firsthand how the cyber phenomenon is contributing to the breakdown of a number of marriages. Your partner may resent the amount of time you spend being distracted by the perpetual notifications on your phone; you may have been accidentally tagged, checked-in or snapped at the bar when you told your partner that you were ‘working late’; or you may be unable to resist pressing the send button to reach out to your high school sweetheart in an attempt to relive your youth and remember those butterfly feelings you once had when you were caught together behind the bike shed!

This virtual and almost secret world where you can exist behind the guise of someone else and completely reinvent yourself is becoming a frequently cited reason for the breakdown of marriages.  The line between the virtual world and reality is becoming ever more blurred – what one spouse may view as a harmless flirty message posted on a friend’s or colleague’s social media page, another may see it as cyber cheating. In a recent survey 60 per cent of people who engaged in ‘cybersex’ did not consider it as cheating. Whilst a cyber affair does not meet the legal definition of adultery, we are seeing social media cited in divorce petitions as grounds of unreasonable behavior more and more often.  Of course, it may be unlikely that a marriage breaks down due to the simplest of social media faux pas, but one thing is certain, once you have hit that button, your message is exposed in cyber space forever.

The reality is, social media is not going anywhere and it will impact upon every aspect of our lives whether we want it to or not – if the virtual world has caused your relationship to breakdown contact me at Simone@kleymansolicitors.com for advice on how this affects you in reality.