Virtual infidelity – is it really just virtual?

When the topic about marital infidelity or a spouse cheating is brought up, things that usually come out of our thoughts are spouses having extra-marital sex, spouses dating or seeing someone else and having whispered phone conversations late at night among many others. But today, infidelity is taking on a new avenue – the virtual avenue. But is online infidelity just virtual?

It’s just an email. It’s just an online chat. Big deal! These are the justifications of real people who flirted online. But according to a survey, majority of people (53 percent men and 73 percent women) think that even a conversation through email that hints at flirting sexually is cheating. One of the many justifications they have is that online correspondences are dehumanized forms of communicating. Obviously not! When you are communicating with other people elsewhere using your computer, it’s very much the same as talking to someone overseas through a long distance telephone call. When someone secretly satisfies his needs for love and affection from other people on the telephone, he or she instantly become guilty of infidelity. How is communicating with the intention of satisfying your lust and need for affection with someone else other than your spouse over the Internet any different?

So the next time your spouse is spending time online longer than usual, sneak up on him. You can check your browser’s history (unless, of course, he’s deleted the browsing history). The easiest way is to click the drop down menu on the address bar to see the list of recently visited sites. You can also visit your nearest computer shop and see if they have anything that could monitor your spouse’s email and other online activities.