A number of people I know have left Facebook.
Reason: 20% of divorces are caused by Facebook.
Apparently, couples are finding more than just an old friend from High School, they’re finding old flames.
In fact, one New Jersey pastor told his married church leaders to cancel their Facebook accounts, or they would be forced to resign.
When I saw this go down last November, I thought it was a little misguided. Not that I love Facebook more than my wife, but it seemed to me that if my marriage was solid, Facebook wasn’t going to change that. My wife knows my password and has full access to anything I do online. We are “one-flesh” after all.
Much to my amusement, The Wall Street Journal broke a story last week, proving the 1-in-5 Facebook Divorce Rate false.
How did the urban legend begin?
The 1-in-5 number originated with an executive at an online divorce-service provider in the U.K. Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online, which allows Britons to file uncontested divorces at low cost, had just launched the company’s Facebook page and wondered what role Facebook has in precipitating divorces. After determining that the word “Facebook” appeared in 989 of the company’s 5,000 or so most recent divorce petitions, he had Divorce-Online issue a news release in December 2009 stating “Facebook is bad for your marriage.”
Real scientific, eh?
The Wall Street Journal goes on:
The confusion crested last week when Perry Drake, senior manager of media relations for Loyola University Health System in Chicago, put together a news release touting a Loyola psychologist’s expertise on relationships and social media. Finding the 1-in-5 figure online, Mr. Drake led the news release with the headline: “Don’t let your marriage be among the 1 in 5 destroyed by Facebook.” By the time Mr. Drake became aware of the error and alerted the news release’s recipients, news articles had appeared around the world. “A little sloppiness on my part has made for a bad two weeks,” says Mr. Drake.
So, what began as a short sighted publicity stunt continues to spread like common knowledge.
It’s a shame that so many married couples (hopefully they’re still married), blamed Facebook for their marital problems instead of looking in the mirror.
Graham says
I remember seeing the news report about the pastor telling his staff to get off Facebook and I thought the same thing you did. I had of course forgotten about it since last Nov. Thanks for doing the research! I knew Facebook couldn’t be that bad for our marriages (in my case… future marriage). 😉
Eric Dye says
Congrats, man!
Your domain name is awesome …. love the “co” … FTW!
Trevor says
“It’s a shame that so many married couples (hopefully their still married), blamed Facebook for their marital problems instead of looking in the mirror.”
Right on.
Eric Dye says
🙂
Mike Sessler says
This is a great article. It’s another fine reminder that we really need to check our facts before hitting “send,” “post,” or “publish.” It’s easy to manipulate statistics and draw conclusions that aren’t really there. While I suspect there have been a few divorces that were accelerated by Facebook, it seems a bit of a stretch to say those divorces are actually caused by Facebook. It’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causality.
I do have one nit to pick, however (and I really hate to be that guy, but this is a growing and disturbing trend). Twice in this article, you use “their” incorrectly.
“Their” is possessive; as in their marriage, their car, their house.
“They’re” is a contraction, short for “The are.” As in, I hope they’re (they are) still married.
Finally, “There” is a place; as in let’s go over there to the park.
To wit, “Bob said next time we’re over there, we should see their new car. They’re going to take us for a ride.”
Also, the correct phrase is “short sighted,” not “short sided.”
Again, I really hate being that guy, but like fact checking before we publish, I think those of us who write highly trafficked (and even those that aren’t) blogs should make every effort to use the language correctly. This despite the fact that those three words are used incorrectly thousands of times a day on Twitter…
Thanks for listening!
Eric Dye says
Thank YOU for replying!
I apologize for those nasty mistakes … YIKES!
If you have any other advice, please, let me know!
Thanks again.
(Post corrected :-))