As you navigate your divorce, you’re probably going to confront a lot of stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. Bottling those emotions up is unhealthy, but you also need to be careful with how you vent them. For many, social media provides a perfect outlet for connection, support, and the offloading of emotions, but it could be dangerous in your divorce case.
In fact, your spouse could use your posts to try to portray you as a bad parent, someone who has hidden marital assets or a more lavish lifestyle than they claim, or someone who was quick to strike up a new romance. Any of these issues could be problematic in your marriage dissolution, threatening you with less time with your children, fewer marital assets, and none of the spousal support that you need.
So, how can you get a handle on your social media during your divorce?
What you should do with your social media
You can’t just ignore your social media accounts during your divorce. Instead, you should do the following:
- Change your privacy settings so that only trusted individuals can view your posts.
- Sift through those who have access to your posts to see if any of them pose a threat, that way you can remove those who may end up causing harm to your divorce case.
- Think about staying off social media altogether until your marriage dissolution is finalized.
- If you are going to post, be extra cautious about the content and how words and pictures can be taken out of context.
- Remember that even if you stay off social media, you might be tagged in pictures and posts made by others.
As you can see, you need to be proactive in protecting yourself and your social media. But you also need to be defensive. Let’s look at some additional ways to do that.
What you shouldn’t do with your social media
There are a lot of missteps that can be made with social media. With that in mind, you should refrain from doing the following:
- Posting anything that could paint you in a bad light.
- Leaving up old posts that you wouldn’t want the public to see.
- Talking about your divorce and your spouse.
- Discussing any negative reactions that you have to the judge hearing your case.
- Saying anything that indicates that it’s difficult to raise your children.
- Show off any new and expensive purchases.
- Thinking that you’re safe to post on other people’s social media pages.
Remember, it’ll be easy for your spouse to take your posts out of context. That’s why you need to be extremely diligent and careful with how you handle your social media. If you’re not, then you could find yourself facing an uphill battle to secure the outcome you want in your marriage dissolution case.
Don’t let your divorce get out of control
A divorce case can quickly get out of hand when you’re taken by surprise. You can avoid this by thoroughly preparing your case and anticipating the harsh arguments that’ll be made by your spouse.
Engaging in this preparation can be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary. And, once you have your case ready to go, you can sit down at the negotiation table or walk into court with your head held high, confident that you have strong legal arguments in your corner. Hopefully then you’ll be able to secure the outcome that’s best for you and your future.