As our relationship with tech becomes more engrossing, digital addiction is being increasingly cited in marital breakdowns The final straw for Laura came during what should have been a romantic mini-break to Paris with her husband. The couple had arranged for the grandparents to babysit their children and headed off on the Eurostar for their first trip a deux in almost a decade. By the end of the first day, however, Laura knew she couldn’t take any more.
“At home, we’d had months of me trying to get him to stop endlessly scrolling on his phone,” she says. “I’d hoped that going away, just the two of us, would get him to put it down for a while, at least. But it was clamped in his hand the entire time, while he effectively ignored me.
I spent the weekend seething, and I knew our marriage was over.” The couple, in their late 40s, split up shortly afterwards. Ending a marriage over a cellphone may sound melodramatic, but they’re not alone: “digital detachment”, described as constant phone use and a lack of meaningful, in-person communication, is an issue couples are increasingly citing during marital breakdowns, according to specialists Divorce-Online.
Online infidelity is a major factor. Another is excessive social media use , which was mentioned in 30% of the divorces the company handled between January and August. But Facebook and Instagram are far from the only attention-diverting culprits, as Laura discovered.
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