Capital Study: Online Relationships

13 February 2015, 07:38 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

11 per cent of people in the East Midlands who've taken part in a Capital study into relationships have told us they've used social media to cheat.

This man from Leicester told Capital his girlfriend was unfaithful:

'She was on her own account looking through my friends list, saw someone she liked the look of and started talking to them.

'She started seeing him, behind my back and then, next minute I know, she ran off with him.'

Last year Facebook was cited as a reason for breaking up in a third of divorces.

Of the 300 people Capital spoke to in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby, 40 per cent said they'd been cheated on, with almost half saying their partner had used social media to meet someone else.

This woman from Newark told Capital she went online specifically to cheat:

'We wasn't [sic] going out anymore as a couple, I just didn't feel attractive and there wasn't really any excitment in my life.

'I think I was just looking for another way of getting some attention and comfort.'

Social media as a reason for divorce

An East Midlands Professor has told Capital more couples are likely to use social media as a reason for divorce in the future.

85 per cent of people who took part in our relationship study said the internet made it easier to meet people.

Jens Binder is a Social Psychologist at Nottingham Trent University, he says the internet is changing our relationships:

'People will actually bring up Facebook posts and other online content to make a case that they've been badly treated in a relationship.

'In former times you had letters, real pictures, these days you have this all online.'