People in Massachusetts get divorced for a plethora of reasons, including financial disagreements. When people are fighting over asset distribution and property division, they may quickly turn to social networking sites to publicly share their feelings and find emotional support. However, according to research, this same outlet that divorcing people sometimes use to vent may be the very thing that caused them to get a divorce in the first place.

A new study showed that using Facebook and other similar social media sites is linked to having trouble in relationships and pondering divorce. This may be because these sites let users reconnect with people they dated or were married to in the past. In addition, they easily allow people to privately and continuously maintain romantic relationships with people other than their spouses.

The chance of having a marriage that lasts long-term is only 50 percent, and social media has not helped these odds. This is why it’s beneficial to discuss the use of social media with one’s spouse. The two parties can then come to an agreement on ground rules related to how they use these sites, such as whether it’s okay to reconnect with past boyfriends or girlfriends.

However, even when taking steps to control social media usage in a marriage, marital unions sometimes fail despite how hard people try to make it work. The best way to protect oneself from the financial perils of divorce is to develop a prenuptial agreement that addresses how assets and income will be split up during a divorce proceeding. Without an agreement, a court will make decisions regarding property division and asset distribution, often not in line with what one of the parties or both parties really want. Those who lack a prenuptial agreement can still try to reach their own resolution through a divorce negotiation in Massachusetts.

Source: CBS News, “Divorce, social networks and prenups“, Ray Martin, July 10, 2014