Does Facebook really lead to divorce?

Facebook is popping up in divorce cases as all those pokes, instant messages and high school flames catch up with folks with cheatin' eyes, according to one rather unscientific story.

The Telegraph in the UK reports that Facebook is fueling divorce claims:

One law firm, which specialises in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook.

Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online said: "I 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.

"The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to."

Now that statement has escalated into "research." The Telegraph even calls it research---it's one law firm scanning its database.

Let's get real: You could substitute any technological advance for Facebook and write the same story. Rest assured that cell phones hit the scene and quickly became tied up in divorce proceedings. And texting has to have led to divorce. So has the Internet. I'm sure AOL was mentioned in a few cases too back in the day when it mattered.

Does Facebook have a greater role in divorces than Craigslist.com? How about Yahoo IM? There has to be flirting on IM somewhere. How about Google? If you're going to do any real research you'd have to compare Facebook's role in divorces compared to a site like AshleyMadison.com that facilitates affairs.

The point: If people are going to screw around they will. Facebook is just a tool that will ride shotgun along with a bevy of other Web properties. Now things may become a little more public on Facebook, but generally speaking the site can't be considered the sole catalyst for divorce proceedings.