Although we are in Florida, you don’t have to look very far to find news of New York’s mayoral campaign. Candidate Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal has made national news. Sexting is a broad term that refers to the sending of sexually explicit texts or messages as well as photos over digital media–usually a cell phone.
A Florida marriage counselor was featured by First Coast News recently discussing the problems associated with sexting and other forms of technology. Though he said that sexting may not be the defining reason many couples divorce, it does illustrate how technology has made having an extramarital affair easier than ever.
Married people who use their smart phones for the purpose of sexting extramarital paramours may find the practice is easy, but such affairs, even of a digital nature, can nudge couples closer to divorce.
The counselor stated that before the advent of digital technology, cheating was not quite so easy. People had to arrange a meeting and actually meet face to face. Technology and sexting, in particular, provide a new dimension to infidelity practices. While the counselor finds that sexting makes it easier for individuals to keep their affairs secret, another school of thought might disagree. A sext message is incredibly easy for someone to share with hundreds of people–even thousands on social networks; privacy is incredibly vulnerable in this digital age. In fact, such messages could even potentially be used in divorce proceedings as evidence of infidelity or to show that one spouse spent marital assets on an affair. This might be particularly important in a high-asset divorce, where it is necessary to ensure that all marital assets are accounted for and that no assets have been hidden or squandered.
In conclusion, sexting is as risk-laden as any other similar behavior that threatens marriage or that could be a key factor in a couple’s dispute and subsequent divorce. With sales of smart phones increasing across the country, some people will need to make smarter choices to keep their marriages intact.
Source: First Coast News”Local marriage counselor weighs in on sexting scandals,” July 24, 2013
