It is natural to use social media to share your life with your friends and family members. However, when it comes to getting a divorce, you need to change the way you use social media. Many social media habits that may seem harmless normally can damage your divorce case.
Social Media Habit #1: Talking Negatively About Your Spouse
It can be natural to complain about your spouse when you break up. However, you shouldn't complain about your spouse on social media.
Complaining about your spouse on social media is not the same as complaining about your spouse over a glass of wine to your best friend in the privacy of your own home. When you complain about your spouse online, you are leaving behind a public record. If your complaint is seen as threatening or false, it can be really damaging to your divorce case.
Confine your griping about your spouse to private settings where what you are saying is not being recorded.
Social Media Habit #2: Cleaning up Your Social Media
It is not a good idea to clean up your social media accounts because you are getting a divorce. Scrubbing your social media account and deleting content from it can be seen by the court as destroying evidence.
Deleting content from your social media account can also be seen as admitting that you are guilty of something, be that cheating or talking poorly about your spouse or damaging your relationship with your spouse.
You can make your account private while allowing the other attorney access to your social media accounts. However, you shouldn't start deleting things, as that can be damaging to your divorce case.
Social Media Habit #3: Talking About New Relationships
Third, you shouldn't talk about any new relationships you are developing on your social media account. Even if your relationship didn't start until after you were formally separated, talking about new relationships can still reflect poorly on you.
Your spouse can argue that you started an affair while you were still married. Any new relationship you start should be kept private and off social media.
Social Media Habit #4: Drug and Alcohol Use
Fourth, although you can legally drink and, in many states, consume marijuana, you should not share that information on social media. You shouldn't put up pictures of yourself drinking or smoking or hanging out at bars or nightclubs. It doesn't matter if you are not wasted in the picture; even casual pictures with alcohol can be damaging to your divorce case.
If you are going through a divorce, try to stay off social media as much as possible. Your social media accounts are public records, and everything you post and do on social media can impact your divorce case. This is the time to stay quiet on social media until your divorce has been officially finalized with the courts.
For more information on best practices during a divorce, contact a family lawyer in your area.
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