Social media addiction can lead to broken marriages

SHAH ALAM - An addiction to devices are among the causes of high divorce cases in Malaysia

According to Family and Marriage Counselor Consultant Hushim Salleh said there was a case where the marriage only lasted for six months after the wife decided to divorce the husband due to his addiction to gadgets.

“The reason is no communication to the point that the couple becomes distant with each other. In fact, it’s easy to cheat when the husband has contact with other women and vice versa,” he told Sinar.

Approximately 26.8 million internet users in Malaysia spend two hours and 47 minutes a day or almost 20 hours a week surfing several social media platforms as stated in the 2023 Digital report.

The yearly report released by Meltwater a global lead in media and social media information as well as We Are Social for January 2023, found users aged 25 to 35 were the most active.

The research found three main reasons for internet users to browse which were information searching (76.2 per cent), keeping up with current news at 65.8 per cent and maintaining contact with friends and family (64.2 per cent).

Hushim added social media addictions have brought upon negative effects in familial relationships other than also affecting their health.

“When communication among family members lessen it would cause them to distance themselves causing more misunderstandings,” he explained.

He added that such addictions would cause children to lose their focus while studying.

He said they would be easily involved in immoral acts such as drugs and free sex.

“Children spend too much time on smartphones, where some would stay up to 5am causing them to change their natural cycles - sleeping during the day and staying awake at night,” he said.