5 social media tips when going through divorce

You might have a slight addiction to your phone. You enjoy posting about your daily life on Facebook and coming up with a clever tweet about the day’s news. But now you’re facing divorce and you wonder what you should share about your divorce in the coming months. You even may contemplate about keeping your divorce private on social media. However, one thing you might not think about is how your social media posts can impact your divorce.

Social media posts can become evidence in divorce cases. In fact, 81% of attorneys say they find evidence on social media that they can present in court – and 66% of that evidence comes from Facebook.

If you don’t want your social media posts to negatively affect your divorce, you have to be careful. Here are five tips to keep in mind:

1. Refrain from using social media as much as possible during your divorce. If you can, just don’t use social media at all or only use it sparingly. You don’t want to post something that can be misconstrued.
2. Don’t trash your ex through your social media posts. You might think you defriended your spouse and blocked them and they won’t know what you post about. However, you likely still share some common friends with your ex. Those friends could screenshot anything you write about your spouse. Then, your spouse’s attorney can use that evidence to show that you aren’t as committed to co-parenting as much as you claim.
3. Don’t post photos of yourself with a new vehicle or on an exotic vacation. Your ex’s attorney could use those images to show you don’t need as many assets as you are asking for in the divorce or you don’t need the spousal support you’re seeking.
4. Don’t posts photos of yourself out drinking and partying with friends. You don’t want to give the impression you might be an unfit parent if you are seeking more custody time with your children.
5. Don’t join any dating apps or change your profile status to divorced until your divorce is final. You don’t want to give the impression you already have moved on before your divorce is over.

You may want to feel support from friends and family as you go through your divorce. However, you can get that and still avoid posting about your divorce on social media. No matter how you are feeling, you have to keep your end goal in mind: settling your divorce in your best interests and moving on.