Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, near and far, and staying appraised of everyone's daily doings, no matter how mundane. It can also be the fast track to blowing up marriages.

A recent quote Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online to the Telegraph.com stated that Facebook-related antics lead to one in five divorces.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers also said more than 80 percent of divorce attorneys it polled stated the number of people using social media to engage in extramarital activity is burgeoning.

"If I'm talking to one person five times a week vs. another person one time a week, you don't need a fancy psychological degree to conclude I'm more likely to fall in love with the person I talk to five times a week," clinical psychologist Steven Kimmons, Ph.D. told ScienceBlog. "I have more contact with that person. We're coming across it more and more."

Attorney Alan Edmunds agrees. As a former Judge Pro Tem in the San Diego family courts with over 30 years of experience in family law, Edmunds has been around the block a few times. That Facebook-fueled breakups are a growing trend, locally and nationally, hasn't caught him off guard.

"I'm not surprised," said Edmunds, who heads Encinitas-based Edmunds Law Firm. "It's symptomatic of the society we live in. It breaks down traditional marriage.

"Opportunity and temptation are an age-old problem in relationships. It (Facebook) makes it easier to have anonymous relationships that people think aren't real, but they turn into real relationships."

One recurring theme in the Facebook divorce is this: John or Jane is sitting home one day with little to do, so he tries to track down that cute girl he had a crush on in second grade or she aims to locate the hunky football star she adored in high school.

Once found, they begin trading steamy e-mails, messages, texts and whatever else, decide to hook up somewhere, and the next thing you know --- affair. Then the dinged husband or wife finds out after reading some ill-advised post or compromising Facebook photo and says, "See you in court."

"I have seen relationships started on Facebook,'' Edmunds said. "People have revisited old relationships and they're rekindled. It's when some marriages aren't as strong as they should be (that it's a particular problem)."

Said Kimmons, of Loyola University Medical Center, outside of Chicago: "I don't think these people typically set out to have affairs. A lot of it is curiosity. They see an old friend or someone they dated and decide to say 'hello' and catch up on where that person is and how they're doing."

Another speedy way to infidelity and/or divorce is when someone starts paying more attention to his or her social media contacts than their real-time social life, significant other included. Goodbye, marital bliss.

"People will vent on Facebook instead of talking to their spouse or boyfriend (about an issue)," Edmunds said.

Even after the marriage has crumbled and divorce proceedings are underway, folks have been known to trash the soon-to-be ex on Facebook or other sites. Bad move; what you type can and will be held against you in a court of law.

"You're finding information that you just never got in the normal discovery process --- ever," said Denver attorney Leslie Matthews. "People are just blabbing things all over Facebook. People don't yet quite connect what they're saying in their divorce cases is completely different from what they're saying in Facebook. It doesn't even occur to them that they'd be found out."

AAML vice-president elect Linda Lea Viken was even more blunt.

"We tell our clients when they come in, 'I want to see your Facebook page. I want you to remember that the judge can read that stuff, so never write anything you don't want the judge to hear,'" Viken said. "It's all pretty good evidence ... the judges don't really have any problems letting it in. It's very common in my new cases... I've had some fun ones."

In the spirit of requisite attorney bashing, a cynic could say lawyers should be thrilled with the rising spate of Facebook divorces, since it should be great for business. But the tone of Edmunds' voice when discussing this new breed of break-ups indicated he found the trend distasteful.

For the record, Edmunds Law Firm is on Facebook and other social sites, whose logos are prominently displayed on his firm's Web page.

Edmunds was asked if he were a fan of Facebook, despite the negativity it can bring about, such as divorces.

"I'm a fan of Facebook when it's used properly and in moderation," Edmunds said.

Well, there are apparently a lot of married souls out there who can't execute that.