London - Forget the seven-year itch. Couples are now most likely to break up after less than three – with Facebook and Twitter a major factor.
A survey of 2 000 adults who had recently ended a serious relationship or marriage found that typically it lasted two years, nine months – and 54 percent felt social media played a part in the split.
A third said their ex-partner had met a new lover or had been flirting online, while 27 percent said that they had found someone else or were doing the flirting. Nearly a quarter said they rushed into a relationship having thought they knew each other well from social media profiles, while 17 percent said that they or their partner spent too much time on Facebook and Twitter instead of talking.
George Charles of discount website VoucherCodesPro, which carried out the research, said: “Traditionally, the ‘seven-year itch’ is described as the time period at which couples struggle. Our findings suggest that modern relationships have a shorter shelf-life as a result of our hectic and technology-dominated social lives.” - Daily Mail