Social media has played the villain in ruining many marriages and creating marital disputes among couples in the UAE, experts have said.
According to psychologists, social media is the main facilitator for infidelity and extramarital affairs - one of the main reasons couples part ways. Dr Dolly Habbal, clinical psychologist and head of the department at Universal Hospital in Abu Dhabi, said romantic reunions with past partners are more common than ever, due to the ease of finding people online.
"Before the Internet, trying to locate a lost love required a lot of work. Today, old lovers can just look for each other online and even get back with each other if they are still in love but were separated by circumstances.
"However, the reawakening of the old romance can put marriages, even good ones, at risk and it may lead to either divorce from their current partners or an extramarital affair." She said a spouse chatting with an ex-lover may also cause emotional and physical cheating that can eventually lead to separation. Problems created by social media feature highly in couple's lives and the increasing number of divorce cases is strongly associated with the abuse of social media, she Dr Habbal noted.
While these sites are still accessible through mobile apps, their access from web remains unavailable.
"Instead of couples retiring to bed together and discussing their family, work and children, they opt to stay up and be on social media in the evenings and engage with friends," she said.
The psychologist said she has seen many cases of disputes among couples that resulted from online use. "Even last week, I saw a couple where the wife was complaining that her husband was cheating on her with a woman he always chats with on Facebook," said Habbal.
"The wife said she saw inappropriate messages her husband exchanged with another woman, and that she wanted to separate from him." The psychologist said the Internet has also ruined marriages, especially when men get hooked on to pornography online and ignore their wives.
Naser Al Riyami, a psychologist at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi, said the Internet is a great tool for connecting people, but addiction to online flirting may cause marital problems.
"Marriage is an investment that requires time and care for each spouse. But spending many hours on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media can create or widen the emotional distance between couples, if they are not keen to spend time with their spouse," Al Riyami said. "Sometimes, if you give too much attention to your online activities, it could cause misunderstanding that the partner is not devoted and is cheating on them."
According to the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) report, 1,922 divorce cases were recorded in 2016, compared to 1,813 the previous year.
