Technologically Challenged Relationships

 
In November of 2002, 350 of the top divorce and matrimonial law attorneys in the United States were surveyed at their annual conference. They were asked about the experiences in dealing with divorce and technology in their practices. This is what their experiences show:

62%- The attorneys rated the internet as a significant factor leading to the divorce cases they handled in 62% percent of their cases that year.

68%- The attorneys said that 68% of the divorce cases that they handled that year involved one party meeting a new love interest over the internet.

58%- Fifty six percent of the divorce cases handled that year involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic sites.

47%- Excessive time spent on the computer was involved in 47% of divorce cases that year.

33%- Spouses cited excessive time spent in chat rooms as problematic in their marriage in 33% of the divorce cases the attorneys handled that year.

J. Lindsey Short Jr., the then president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers said this about the survey results:

"While I don't think you can say the internet is causing more divorces, it does make it easier to engage in the sorts of behaviors that traditionally lead to divorce."

So how would someone who cherishes their marriage respond to these statistics?

If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.”
― F. Burton Howard