Online "micro-cheating" ruining relationships in digital age

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Press Trust of India London
Last Updated : Jan 15 2018 | 1:30 PM IST
Micro-cheating might be ruining relationships in the modern digital age, as just a click of a computer button can be considered unfaithful by your partner, experts warn.
Micro-cheating is used to describe behaviour which falls in a grey area between friendly interaction and infidelity.
Examples include checking the social media accounts of former partners, sending emoji such as hearts and flowers to people other than partners, and saving mobile phone contact details of a friend of the opposite sex under a false name.
This means, showing a high level of "digital" interest in someone outside the existing relationship can constitute micro-cheating, 'The Telegraph' reported.
"It can be something as simple as repeatedly 'liking' someone's posts on Instagram or commenting on someones Facebook," said Martin Graff, a psychologist at the University of South Wales in the UK.
Other actions that can be considered micro-cheating include frequently checking someone's Instagram, messaging someone without your partner's knowledge, or adding a former lover on the messaging site Snapchat.
However, critics of the term micro-cheating say that the concept encourages controlling behaviour and the surveillance of online communications.

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First Published: Jan 15 2018 | 1:30 PM IST

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