As many as one in five divorce cases mention Facebook as the primary source of tension, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
"If you publicly post any contradictions to previously made statements and promises, an estranged spouse will certainly be one of the first people to notice and make use of that evidence," said Marlene Eskind Moses, the AAML's president.
In fact, four out of five lawyers report that evidence derived from social media sites has increased dramatically in the past five years, according to a recent AAML survey. Of course, collecting such evidence was harder, if not impossible, before the widespread adoption of sites like Facebook that can keep records and expose people's private lives.
Facebook doesn't appear to be contributing to a rise in the divorce rate, which is actually declining slightly, mostly due to fewer people getting married than getting divorced. Sites such as Facebook are clearly complicating relationships as much as they're nurturing them, but ultimately whatever damage they cause is insult to injury. They simply reveal a troubled relationship's lack of trust and honesty.
Perhaps revealing the wide lead Facebook holds in social networking, only about 14 percent of divorce cases involve MySpace and just 5 percent Twitter.
Lawyers aren't the only ones snooping online. Police, prosecutors and health insurers are increasingly mining social media for evidence to prosecute crimes and investigate fraud. Lawyers are even increasingly sifting through the postings, messages and check-ins on social networking sites to determine jury selection.
Nielsen statistics reveal that 135 million people in the U.S. visited Facebook during the month of January, or nearly 70 percent of Internet users.
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