Twitter Use Linked To Infidelity?

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Do you Mark take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold in sickness and in health until Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) do you part?” While that may be an unlikely question to ask in a wedding I personally can see it. But then, I once presided over a wedding in which I closed the ceremony with, “By the power vested in me by the Internet,” so anything is possible.

Online infidelity

The doctoral student who led the research, Russell Clayton, recently conducted a similar study with Facebook suggesting that the world’s most popular social network can lead to cheating. This is, at the risk of understatement, not terrifically surprising. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) allows users to reconnect with old friends, colleagues, and exes. There is something inherently easy in reconnecting with an old flame who hates their job, suffers the burdens of family, and can easily remember going to the prom with you when they, well, looked like a seventeen year old rather than the 40-year old version that has given birth to three children and seen their metabolism slow.

Do I speak from experience? I don’t know, but I do know that the ambiguous nature of my answer may have to do with my wife subscribing to my writing via RSS feed.

Somewhat mirroring his Facebook study, it turns out that 140 characters is more than enough to flirt your way out of an ongoing relationship, especially if it’s a relationship younger than 18 months. Wait, that’s Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Twitter can apparently destroy relationships of any length.

You’re doomed

“I found it interesting that active Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) users experienced Twitter-related conflict and negative relationship outcomes regardless of length of romantic relationship,” Clayton said. “Couples who reported being in relatively new relationships experienced the same amount of conflict as those in longer relationships.”

Essentially, get off the social networks if want your relationship to succeed. Or, and I just can’t get my head around this, get a joint social network account with your partner?

“Although a number of variables can contribute to relationship infidelity and separation, social networking site usage, such as Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) use, can be damaging to relationships,” Clayton said. “Therefore, users should cut back to moderate, healthy levels of Twitter use if they are experiencing Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) or Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) — related conflict. Some couples share joint social networking site accounts to reduce relationship conflict, and there are some social networking site apps, such as the 2Life app, that facilitates interpersonal communication between partners.”

Apparently, we are no longer to blame for human nature and require an app to facilitate human contact.

In his study, Clayton surveyed 581 Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) users of all ages (well, 18 to 67). Clayton asked participants questions about their Twitter use such as how often they log in in to Twitter, tweet, scroll the Twitter newsfeed, send direct messages to others, and reply to followers. Clayton also asked how much, if any, conflict arose between participants’ current or former partners as a result of Twitter use.

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