Sometimes, liking a photo or hiding relationship status in social media is considered cheating

Like all things in the world, infidelity has also evolved. This is determined by a recent report by an expert in psychology that explains how the Internet has allowed relationships to be increasingly ambiguous and therefore, easier to commit infidelity 'without realizing it'.

Leer en español: ¿La tecnología puede propiciar la infidelidad?

Martin Graff, professor of psychology at the University of South Wales of the United Kingdom, coined the term micro-cheating to define those small virtual actions that give rise to ambiguous interaction with other subjects when one is involved in a relationship.

In Graff's words, micro-cheating is "any act or behavior of someone in a relationship that suggests that there is a third person emotionally or physically involved."

According to Graff's explanations, contemporary micro-cheating allows better than ever to send signals to someone who is available without being. Although this tendency is not necessarily interpreted as infidelity, it does give rise to a real deception that occurs more easily.

Paranoia or real signs?

In previous months, psychologist and commentator Melanie Schilling said in a Huffington Post edition that micro-cheating is about "seemingly small actions that indicate that a person puts their emotional or physical attention on someone who is outside of their relationship".

Some experts have tried to define this type of actions. Examples include: giving a photo on social networks at night, saving a contact with another name, sharing humorous comments in private, hiding sentimental status on the Internet, not deleting profiles in applications or dating pages and contacting an ex to remind him of something.

According to the opinion of psychologists consulted, to understand this behavior in social networks should start by remembering that by nature the human being is not monogamous and as proposed by psychoanalysis, the individual will always be in search of satisfying new needs. That is why when in a relationship some spaces are neglected, or on the contrary, they are totally filled, the desire arises to start 'games' to indulge impulses, sometimes superfluous.

Latin American Post | Krishna Jaramillo

Copy edited by Laura Rocha Rueda