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More than half of divorcees blame online dating for relationship breakdown

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[Photo: Pexels]

The end of a marriage isn’t something anyone would call ‘easy’, but when it comes to deciding what the cause of one was, some are more confident than others.

Apparently, more than half of British people blame their divorce on online dating.

Researchers at www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk asked 2,476 British divorcees how long they had been married for, and to pick from a list which reason for marriage breakdown applied to them most.

divorce papers
[Photo: Pexels]

A majority (54%) had been married for five to 10 years.

Most picked the predictable-yet-vague “communication problems” as the main reason for their marriage ending (68%).

Next was all about couples growing apart and wanting to go down different paths; 61% said they “wanted different things”.

But more interesting – and specific – is the fact that the third most common thing to blame was online dating, at 52%.

Respondents that answered this were asked to divulge, and in response, the majority (52%) stated that their partner had an active online dating profile while they were married, 29% said that they used online dating while still married to their partner and the remaining 19% revealed that they met their partner online – and believed this was a reason their marriage wasn’t meant to be.

Holding hands
[Photo: Pexels]

Some believed that meeting their partner online in the first place led to the relationship’s downfall. When asked why, 69% said that they felt it was “impersonal”, while 52% said it was easy to lie online.

If you think of the saying ‘the grass is greener’, there are few things you can apply it to more accurately than to online dating. With a seemingly endless number of alternative future partners, does online dating exacerbate the ‘what if’ feeling in long-term marriages?

Or, on the other hand, would people in unhappy marriages seek a way out regardless of whether online dating existed or not?

Do you think online dating damages otherwise healthy marriages? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

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