Free | 23/6
Posted: 6/2/2012
The idea that Facebook 'causes' divorce has been widely reported, with fear-mongering research decrying that 20 percent of splits in the United States -- and roughly 33 percent in the United Kingdom -- involve the social network.Now, Facebook may be driving divorce in a new way, and it has nothing to do with flirtatious wall postings, secret messaging of high school flames or even using the site itself. The new potential trigger for marital discord? Facebook's IPO. When it went public on May 18, Facebook reportedly created 850 new millionaires, 600 of whom are current Facebook employees. According to Palo Alto, Calif.-based family lawyer Steve Cone, these tech professionals might find themselves heading for divorce court. 'I expect a similar wave shortly after Facebook goes public,' he told the Financial Times before the initial public offering, noting that a slew of splits followed other tech IPOs -- specifically, Cisco's and Google's.The tie between not enough money and marriage troubles has been explored extensively over the years - researchers have shown that finances are the biggest source of couples' stress and that fights about money can increase the odds of divorce -- but can an influx of cash also push a couple apart?Because experts disagree, the answer is -- like Facebook's relationship status option -- complicated.Cone told HuffPost Divorce that his assertion about IPO-sparked splits was based on his experiences in Silicon Valley. Now with the law firm Di Maria & Cone, he said he has handled approximately 600 dot-com divorces since the mid-1990s and has consulted with numerous people who were considering divorce or preparing premarital and post-marital agreements. Overall, people tend to split when they have the means to do so, he said. 'It's usually a sign of better economic times when divorces pick up.'This idea is certainly supported by what happened in 2007, when the then-booming New Yo