These days, lots of people reportedly spend lots of time on so-called social networking sites.

What are they up to there?

Well, it seems a respectable percentage may be engaging in virtual flirtations … and beyond.

A British divorce website initiated a study of recent American divorces or, more specifically, court-filed papers in US divorce cases.

Well, the study concluded that a rather astonishing twenty (20%) percent of such court filings specifically refer to the social networking website known as “Facebook” as a cause of the breakdown in the marriage!

The study encompasses 5,000 divorce cases in the US.

And, although Facebook is the leading reported offender among social networking websites, other social networking websites, including Twitter and MySpace, are not overlooked in court filings either.

The study does not go so far as to attribute any divorces to Facebook (or Twitter or MySpace).

The study also puts out there that divorce attorneys may scour social networking websites looking for “dirt” on opposing parties (which may be useful) … and on their own clients (for damage control purposes).

A divorce lawyer’s work is never done.

Read more in this [Philadelphia] ABC TV 6 news article: Study: Facebook often leads to divorce.