Is micro-cheating really cheating?

Micro cheating is a term used to describe behaviors that don’t include physical infidelity but demonstrate specific features of infidelity including secrecy, dishonesty, and emotional or sexual attachments to people other than your partner.

Before the internet, someone who claimed to have a “work wife” or “work husband” that they shared intimate details of their romantic life with or leaned on for emotional support outside of their relationship were the most common micro cheaters. Today, anyone with s a social media account and a messaging app can be a micro cheater. Most shockingly, many of these people are oblivious to the fact that their behavior is damaging to their relationships. They will rationalize, minimize and deny the seriousness of their actions to both their partner and themselves.

What is considered cheating is mainly dependent on the agreements that were made in the relationship. What is unacceptable to some may seem harmless to others but some examples of behaviors that could be considered micro-cheating are:

Cultivating intimate relationships with others online via flirting, sexting, and exchanging fantasies

Seeking out and reconnecting with their exes and discussing intimate details from their past together