Social media use during divorce

Few people live their lives completely free from social media. No matter whether you like to exchange recipes, share photos of your children or receive support from others, what you post could have significant negative ramifications, especially during divorce.

A court could use online information against you. Why leave room for your integrity to come into question when your finances, time with your children and property are at stake?

To post or not to post?

During your divorce process, you would be wise to:

  • Maintain privacy. Take a break from sharing your personal life online until you and your spouse dissolve your marriage. To further protect your interests, ask your friends and family members to refrain from posting on your behalf or tagging you in their posts.
  • Limit your children’s accounts. Encourage your kids to speak openly about their thoughts and feelings surrounding familial changes. To shield them from varying opinions about you and their other parent, provide other outlets for expression to minimize their desire to chat online.
  • Think twice, type once. This goes for your emails and texts as well as what you share on your social media accounts. Before sharing, reacting or commenting, think about whether doing so will help your situation or affect your settlement terms.
  • You might go so far as to disable your social media accounts until your divorce is finalized.

Carefully choose who you’ll confide in throughout the process and maintain a close support system. Remember that no matter how hurt you feel, trying to make your ex look bad will likely just make matters worse for you.