Perils of social media and the law : Don't check your common sense at the door

Reading Time Magazine’s Person of the Year article on Mark Zuckenberg I read of the following about the dangers of Facebook:

According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 81% of its members have seen a rise in the number of divorce cases involving social networking.

Imagine a time when Americans began to use phones en mass. If we polled divorce lawyers, wouldn’t the majority have seen a rise in the use of phones in communication between people having extramarital affairs? Even facilitating communication between those folks?

How about with the advent of the automobile? Wouldn’t the majority of matrimonial lawyers have seen a rise in people traveling to their extramarital encounters in automobiles?

The way we communicate and connect with one another is changing. The change is going to be far greater than those before us ever experienced during the industrial and telecommunication revolutions.

Facebook and social media are facilitating this change. Big time.

Just as I told jurors when trying a case, ‘Don’t check your common sense at the door.’ By doing so you’re apt to draw the wrong conclusion.