Internet Affair: Is It Cheating?

With the advent of technology, the internet has opened up different ways of communicating and connecting with each other. The cyberspace offers various alternatives to relieve boredom, make friends, find a spouse, chat and flirt. This opens up the debate of whether an online relationship or flirting constitutes cheating.

Actually, the answer can be pretty simple. If you find out that your partner has been chatting with someone online frequently to the extent that your relationship has started to change in terms of intimacy, then without a doubt, that is cheating. The idea of "finding out" itself indicates that there was an intention to hide the truth in the first place. If your partner knew you would not be digging through his or her computer and he or she gets comfort from knowing the online relationship would remain hidden, then it is hard to deem it as something innocent. The fact that it bothers you and there is a preference on the part of your partner not to let you know would be enough to see an online relationship as cheating.

No doubt cheating used to be very black and white. However, these days a lot of people would like to think the internet has created a million shades of grey. But it is still fairly easy to judge whether a behavior creates feelings of emotional or sexual betrayal. If you need to hide an online friend from your significant other, share much of your feelings with him or her rather than with your own partner and start talking in sexual terms, it is cheating regardless of whether a physical meeting has taken place. Bear in mind that emotional betrayal can be just as painful as a full-blown affair.

Of course, different people may have difference tolerances on online relationships. So, in the end, only you would know the answer if your partner is cheating with his or her cyber affairs. While there are ways to find out the extent of the online affair, as a start, you can also ask yourself, "does it feel OK to me?" If the answer to that question is no, then that would constitute cheating by your own standards and should not be tolerated. More often than not, your partner would know it too that it is cheating deep down in his or her heart