{"id":9668,"date":"2017-10-20T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9668"},"modified":"2017-10-14T11:15:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T15:15:47","slug":"affairs-on-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html","title":{"rendered":"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9670\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"telephone-586268_1920\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>Social networking sites that connect former flames and allow users to make new friends online are being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Talk to any divorce lawyer and he or she will tell you that the popularity of sites like Facebook and other on-line chat rooms and sites\u00a0are tempting unhappy people to cheat. In fact, more and more of these sites are being used as legal evidence of affairs in divorce cases. For instance, when a sexual chat takes place on-line, it can be traced and retrieved by software designed to serve as an electronic private eye. Photos of spouses with their lovers posted online provide proof of an affair. And, publicly accessed text posts declaring love and affection can be used against a person who denies online involvement.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online says this about divorce petitions, \u201cI had heard from my staff that there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook and I decided to see how prevalent it was. I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook.\u201d <a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref\">[1]<\/a>Divorce Online also reported that in 2011, a third of all divorce filings had the word \u201cFacebook\u201d in them. Overall, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers confirms that the use of social networking content is on the rise in divorce proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are social media public, but easy to access and laced with opportunity. Infidelity is often opportunity driven. Thus, the temptation to boost your ego, feel appreciated and satisfy temptation takes little convincing from those hurting in relationship. A 2008 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey found about one in five adults uses Facebook to flirt<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref\">[2]<\/a>. Those posts that become too intimate or tantalizing can quickly transform a trusted partner to a tempted one. Fast and easy emotional availability and regular communication with former friends and lovers can lead to affairs, both emotional and physical.<\/p>\n<p>Marital breakdowns can begin when a spouse is sexually dissatisfied, has low self-esteem or unresolved personal issues and doesn\u2019t seek help or turn to his or her spouse for help. Distressed marriages create vulnerable people who can choose to seek happiness outside the marriage. As marital researcher, John Gottman, reminds us, turning away from your spouse in times of trouble, brings trouble. It creates a crack in the sound relationship house. Relying on a person of the opposite sex, who is not a spouse, for daily support, can lead to intimacy. The rush associated with the attention feels good and can be addictive. Once you give in to the temptation, you steps can be traced! So the next time you think about cheating, maybe the idea that can easily be caught will cause you to pause and reconsider working on your marriage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Quote: http:\/\/thetechjournal.com\/internet\/facebook-is-the-new-cause-of-divorce.xhtml.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Home Broadband Adoption 2008, Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project, Washington, DC, 2008, J.B. Horrigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social networking sites that connect former flames and allow users to make new friends online are being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Talk to any divorce lawyer and he or she will tell you that the popularity of sites like Facebook and other on-line chat rooms and sites\u00a0are tempting unhappy people to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1016,4086,132,1328,4085,1544,3024],"class_list":["post-9668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-affairs","tag-chat-rooms","tag-divorce","tag-infidelity","tag-marital-breakdown","tag-marital-problems","tag-on-line-cheating"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social networking sites that connect former flames and allow users to make new friends online are being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Talk to any divorce lawyer and he or she will tell you that the popularity of sites like Facebook and other on-line chat rooms and sites\u00a0are tempting unhappy people to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-20T10:00:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-14T15:15:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair","og_description":"Social networking sites that connect former flames and allow users to make new friends online are being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Talk to any divorce lawyer and he or she will tell you that the popularity of sites like Facebook and other on-line chat rooms and sites\u00a0are tempting unhappy people to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2017-10-20T10:00:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-14T15:15:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html","name":"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-20T10:00:28+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-14T15:15:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2017\/10\/telephone-586268_1920-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2017\/10\/affairs-on-line.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think Before You Have That On-Line Affair"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9671,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9668\/revisions\/9671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}