HOUSTON—Can social networking become too friendly for married couples?
That’s what some, who’ve linked Facebook to divorce cases, suggest.
"I cannot fathom the fact of where I am today," said a recently divorced man who did not want to be identified. "I mean, I lost to a website."
The brand-new bachelor believes Facebook led to his divorce. He claims his now-ex-wife went to her high school reunion and saw an old flame. The Houston man said the reunion didn’t stop there.
"Once she came home, through Facebook, they were messaging each other back and forth," he said.
The divorcee said he went into her account and saw what he considered to be inappropriate messages between the two. Their marriage went downhill from there.
"It made me feel that the physical human being of things is not the same as www dot whatever," he said.
Divorce attorneys in the Houston area have heard similar stories.
"Facebook creates a lot of temptation," said divorce attorney Scott Morgan.
Morgan said over the last few years he’s seen a new trend when it comes to infidelity.
"If there were an affair in a divorce case, it was usually a co-worker that was involved. Nowadays, it’s just as likely to be somebody from an entirely different city and a lot of that has to do with Facebook and how easy it is to reconnect with old flames," said Morgan.
Morgan also said Facebook and other social networking sites come up in about a third of his cases. They are used to collect evidence.
"If there is an affair involved, there is almost always going to be some online evidence that we are going to look at. It might be e-mails, it might be Facebook, Facebook postings, it might be the Facebook posting of the alleged boyfriend or girlfriend, so there are a lot of different ways online evidence can work its way into divorce cases," he said.
Morgan said Facebook is more of a medium than a motive behind divorce. But because of that medium, the ring-free man we interviewed said he didn’t just lose a Facebook friend, he lost a wife.
