Just because your partner isn’t cheating on you physically or emotionally, don’t think all is good in the hood.
The newest ‘trend’ in relationships is micro-cheating and sadly, most people don’t even know they’re being cheated on!
As dating expert Melanie Schilling puts it, micro-cheating is defined as a series of small actions and/or thoughts that indicate a person’s interest or focus outside their relationship.
Basically, even if they’ve not acted upon it, if your partner has thought about having sex with someone, it is micro-cheating.
How is micro-cheating different from emotional cheating?
Your partner is emotionally cheating on you if he’s found an emotional confidante in someone else. But if your partner isn’t exactly emotionally invested in anyone else but doing things he may have done as a single person, that’s micro-cheating.
If you’re wondering what constitutes micro-cheating, here’s a list to sort out the confusion:
1. Lying about your relationship status to attractive-looking strangers.
2. ‘Liking’ Instagram photos of attractive people way too often.
3. Casually flirting with colleagues at work.
4. Never refusing anyone who offers to buy you a drink.
5. Keeping regular touch with exes and frequently meeting them for drinks.
6. Making jokes about dating/hooking-up with someone.
7. Proudly discussing your sexual history.
8. Having an account on Tinder with a different name or identity.
9. Defending a friend who cheated in their relationship.
10. Giving your partner many reasons to always be insecure.
11. ‘Forgetting’ to tell your partner about important things.
12. Praising other people on their appearance, clothes and body quite a lot.
13. Never replying to your partner’s text messages or calls immediately.
14. Not introducing your partner to all your friends!
15. Keep changing the password to your phone!
Micro-cheaters may not actually ‘do’ something that’s conventionally considered cheating but they do have a lot on their mind.
If you’re in a relationship, you can’t entirely rule out the possibility of micro-cheating.
But then, haven’t we all either micro-cheated or been micro-cheated on?