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"Last week, yet another study came out that once again linked Facebook and other social networking sites with marital dissatisfaction and increased divorce rates. And once again, I rolled my eyes and shook my head because studies like these give people the wrong idea.  The thing is, if your marriage is in trouble due to dissatisfaction on either side, Facebook and other social media sites are a frequent place for people to gravitate and vent their troubles. If your marriage is in trouble due to a partner&amp;#039;s choice to seek out an affair, Facebook is a great place to look up that old flame or private message that co-worker. It&amp;#039;s a means to an end - not the reason for it. In other words, Facebook may be the road to divorce for some people, but they&amp;#039;re the ones driving the car that gets them there. If you&amp;#039;re telling all your Facebook friends or blasting out on Twitter all your problems with your spouse instead of having a constructive conversation with your partner about them, the problem isn&amp;#039;t social media. If you&amp;#039;re friending all your old flames and hot coworkers and personal messaging them suggestive comments or long, emotional conversations without your spouse&amp;#039;s knowledge, social media isn&amp;#039;t the problem. Eliana Dockterman wrote about this very thing in Time this week, bringing up the difference between causation and correlation. The former means that one thing is the direct result of another, the latter just means that one thing can potentially be a catalyst or a by-product, but not necessarily the cause. What we have here is a correlation between social media and marital dissatisfaction. People use social media more when they&amp;#039;re unhappy in their marriage. The use of social media is not the cause of the unhappiness, but it can exacerbate it. It all comes down to owning up to your choices. If you choose to talk to Twitter instead of your spouse, if you choose to further intimacy with Facebook messages to old lovers instead of with your husband or wife, you are the one making those decisions and taking those actions. Regardless of your motivations or the vehicle you use to further those actions, you&amp;#039;re the one who made the choice. I think we need to stop blaming the technology and start blaming ourselves when we reap what we sow. What do you think? Did Facebook or other social media sites add to your marital problems? Do you make a conscious effort to keep your marital stresses off your Facebook feed? [Follow Ellie&amp;#039;s adventures at SingleMomtism.com or on Facebook and Twitter] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a48834/facebook-not-the-cause-of-divorce/>