Jakarta – The presence of social media has helped people connect with each other, including new friends, but in Depok, West Java, it also plays a big part in divorce.
As of October, the Depok Religious Court recorded 5,000 divorces since the beginning of the year, many of which were triggered by jealousy over social media interactions.
"The reasons for the divorces are various and one of the major factors is social media interaction. For example, the husband or wife was discovered interacting with strangers on social media. That's when the trouble began," court clerk Entoh Abdul Fatah said on Monday in Depok as quoted by kompas.com.
He added that the figure had increased from the same period last year, when there were only 4,000 cases.
Other factors that triggered divorce included economics and continual disagreements. "Most of the people who filed for divorce are ones who got married when they were still young, mostly at the age of 21 to 25," he added. (fac)