Cheating on your partner via the internet has the same traumatic consequences as a real life fling: the evidence

Once cheating on your partner meant looking ambiguously or flirtatiously at someone who was not part of the couple, or the classic excuse of too much work or too many commitments that have kept us away from home for too long, just to sneak that extra hour with the person we are dating without the knowledge of our life partner. A betrayal, which can also be consumated without any real physical contact, nowadays.

via The Independent

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With the advent and ever more widespread diffusion of mobile phones for personal use, social networks and private chats, everyone feels free to be able to flirt with anyone who sparks a degree of attraction in us, especially physical attraction. We might have a beautiful girl or a guy in our Facebook and Instagram contacts, or a friend or acquaintance we haven't heard from or seen for some time but we have always liked, now we have the opportunity to chat with them and "play" with them simply by using the keys or the touchscreen of our mobile phone.

Having a personal smartphone makes it easier for us to "cheat" or flirt with anyone, we just need to make sure we don't let our partners see private conversations or compromising photos we send to others for fun. But what is the fine line that divides a secret betrayal consumated face to face in the real world and a betrayal born in a hidden chat and a photo too many?

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The reality is that betraying on the internet, although it seems to us to be less charged with personal responsibility in the absence of physical contact, has the same psychological effect as an "old-fashioned" betrayal: why is this? A study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore in India points out that the consequences of an online betrayal without physical contact have the same traumatic effects as a "fling" or an affair like in the old days.

The difference, nowadays, lies precisely in the psychological load of responsibility: social networks allow direct contact with thousands of people thousands of kilometers away with whom you can get in touch, chat, comment on posts and photos, check, and all this without even leaving the house and making your partner suspicious.

Still, this type of digital escapade should be treated the same as traditional ones. Times may have changed, but the damage done is the same.