Huckleberries Online

High Noon: Facebook Divorce Notice?

Posted by DFO

Feb. 10, 2012 12:03 p.m. • 4 comments

On the Huffington Post, Abby Tolchinsky writes: “As a divorce mediator and lawyer, sometimes I feel like I've heard it all. I am terribly hard to shock. And yet, yesterday something shocked me: a divorce announcement via email. What's more, it was both thoughtful and tasteful. The thrust of the email: We have been married a long time, we will always be friends and parent peacefully together. Please let me know if you notice anything when your child is with mine about which I should be concerned.” I suppose in retrospect, the initial shock wasn't warranted. After all, if social media has been a contributing component of so many enormous world shifts (see Arab Spring), then why not as a means of announcing the most intimate of life changes?

Question: Should you announce your divorce on Facebook?

Four comments on this post so far. Add yours!

duroc on February 10 at 12:46 p.m.
I’m sorry, but that’s just tacky.
fortboise on February 10 at 1:51 p.m.
Not seeing the connection between notifying one’s spouse of a desire to divorce, via email, and announcing one’s divorce on Facebook.

But since you asked, one of Facebook’s implicit tenets is that You Shall Announce to the world what your relationship status is, and similary when it changes. It goes without saying anymore.

Which, sure, doesn’t make it any less tacky.
CusperLynn on February 16 at 1:40 p.m.
Given that roughly 1/3 of people (according to a survey in NYC) break up via text, Instant Messenger and Facebook I don’t view it as odd that people use it to make that announcement. It is in poor taste, it is impersonal and it has all the qualities of making the announcement to a gathering of friends at a birthday party. But given that Facebook is being cited in more and more divorces as evidence, if not the reason for divorce, I suppose it is the most appropriate place for people to make the announcement.
I didn’t do that because I was not a Facebook member during my divorce. But Facebook Ate My Marriage all the same.
Cusper Lynn
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 16 at 2:46 p.m.
In Washington State one does not need ” un raison” for the divorce…No Fault Divorce is simple and expedient… and the “reason” is that The Marriage is Irretrievably broken… which is a simple fact….(one that has likely existed for many years before the two folks who are married figure it out..and one walks)…( the kids knew all along of course)… j Just file and move on with one’s life… the “Church” may not approve… but you will be so much more comfortable and happy living an authentic life…… gus

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.