Social media has become a cornerstone of our society. We share everything from family photos to dinner plans, and many of us even keep all of our Facebook friends up to date on our divorce. Please DON’T! Using social media during divorce is generally a bad idea, but some ideas are worse than others.
Stop Making These Social Media Mistakes During Divorce!
- Posting pictures of extravagant purchases – If you’re going through a divorce, and you decide to take your mind off it by taking a week-long trip to Maui with your new paramour, please, for the love of God, don’t post pictures of the vacation on social media. It’s probably best to wait until the divorce is finalized, but we won’t tell you how to live your life. Your soon-to-be ex-spouse can use your large purchases or expensive outings as evidence to suggest your income is higher than you’ve claimed.
- Venting through blogs or status updates – In divorce court, judges want you and your ex to respect each other, and the court itself. If you use social media or a blog to vent about everything you don’t like about the judge, the court, or your ex, it will come back to bite you. If you hurt the judge’s feelings by bad mouthing him or anyone else in public, you could lose more than his respect.
- Bashing your ex regarding the children – Even if the kids are too young to use the internet or have social media accounts themselves, family court judges really, really hate when parents say terrible things about the other on public—or even semi-private—forums. One of the worst things you can do if you are involved in a child custody case is to badmouth the other parent online. Even if yes, everyone would agree the other parent is being a total jerk, don’t post that sentiment online.
- Checking in to locations – This is a no-no for two reasons.
- First, if you say you can’t make an obligation, such as taking the kids after school, and then your ex sees you checked in at your favorite social hot-spot, they may say you value social time over your kids.
- Second, for obvious reasons, sharing your location during divorce could be a serious issue if your marriage has a history of domestic violence.
- Sharing stories or pictures of drinking, drug use, partying – Of course, having a good time is not illegal (unless you’re using illegal drugs). However, sharing pictures of you drinking and partying during divorce could affect a judge’s decision regarding child custody.
Don’t give you ex any more ammunition than they likely already have, and please don’t give a judge any reason to doubt you. Social media is a great invention of our time. It connects millions of people with one another, and helps to unify us. However, it can be dangerous at times. Please use it responsibly.
Thousands of people file for divorce every day. If you are thinking of ending your marriage for any reason, know that you are not alone, and the Lewisville divorce attorneys at JulianJohnson, P.C. are here to help.
