If you’re getting a divorce, be cautious with social media

After you and your spouse that it is time for a divorce, you may be tempted to log on to your favorite social media site and yell from the cyber mountaintop about how crummy your soon-to-be-ex is. As great as this sounds in theory, and as cathartic as it may be, the results are often less favorable than they seem. Using social media after a divorce is often a dangerous act.

At the same time, social media is prevalent nowadays. It doesn’t even qualify as “new” anymore. Social media is simply part of our world, and people use it as they wish. So, with that in mind, let’s cover a few important points about using social media and how it relates to divorce.

First of all, you shouldn’t use social media to insult or disparage your soon-to-be-ex once divorce proceedings begin (or even after they are done). This is because your former spouse could use those posts or tweets against you in court. A judge may see your posts or tweets and find you to be an unfit parent (should child custody be part of the equation) or that some other factor inherent to your divorce should change in light of your online commentary.

Secondly, any information you keep online could be used against you. For example, photos that you upload to Facebook or twitter could be used by your ex to create a timeline of events — and that timeline could reveal critical information in your divorce (such as an affair or an attempt to hide assets).

Last but not least, we stay with the topic of online information. Given that it is so vital, you may assume that you should just delete any pertinent information, right? Well, that’s also a bad idea. That information could still be discovered, and your attempts to delete it could be used against you in court.